ITHIR 


% 


liiiflltlliliiiiillliinlhiiiiiiiiiiliiillHilUiiiil! 


Iionuiii 


I  WUn^^H^^B^^^^  n^ 


K 


Ml  Sill  it; 


lAi'ltlll'l 


M 


HAROLD    L.    LEUPP 


THE  LIBRARY 
OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

RIVERSIDE 


B00K,StLl-ti  ^.  _• 

26  8,  28T?EM( 
30  COURT  SQ.  - 


A  HISTORY  OF 

THE  THIRD   FRENCH 

REPUBLIC 


RAYMOND   POINCAKE 


A  HISTORY  OF  THE 
THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 


C.  H.  C.  WRIGHT 

Professor  of  the  French  Language  and  Literature 
in  Harvard  University 


WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON   MIFFLIN   COMPANY 

1916 


COPYRIGHT,   I916,  BY  CHARLES  H.  C.  WRIGHT 
ALL   RIGHTS  RESERVED 

Published  May  igib 


1 


TO 
MY    WIFE 


SI 


CONTENTS 

I.   The  Antecedents  of  the  Franco-Prussian  War.        i 

II.  The  Franco-Prussian  War — The  Government  of 
National  Defence  (September,  1870,  to  Febru- 
ary, 1871).  II 

III.  The  Administration   of  Adolphe  Thiers  (Febru- 

ary, 1871,  to  May,  1873).  3i 

IV.  The  Administration  of  the   Mar^chal    de   Mac- 

Mahon  (May,  1873,  to  January,  1879).  5o 

V.    The   Administration  of    Jules    Gr^vy  (January, 

1879,  to  December,  1887).  75 

VI.   The  Administration  of  Sadi  Carnot  (December, 

1887,  TO  June,  1894).  96 

VII.  The  Administrations  of  Jean  Casimir-Perier(June, 
1894,  TO  January,  1895)  and  of  Felix  Faure 
(January,  1895,  to  February,  1899).  ii5 

VIII.   The  Administration  of  Emile  Loubet  (February, 

1899,  to  February,  1906).  i34 

IX.  The  Administration  of  Armand  FalliSres  (Febru- 
ary, 1906,  TO  February,  igiS).  iSg 

X.  The  Administration  of  Raymond  Poincare  (Feb- 
ruary, 1 91 3-).  176 


Appendix  : 

Presiding 

Officers 

of 

French 

Cab- 

INETS. 

187 

Bibliography. 

193 

Index. 

199 

ILLUSTRATIONS 


Raymond  Poincare 

Frontispiece 

Adolphe  Thiers 

32 

Edme-Patrice-Maurice  Mac-Mahon 

5o 

Leon  Gambetta 

70 

Jules  Ferry 

78 

Sadi  Carnot 

96 

Marie-Georges  Picquart 

124 

Rene  Waldeck-Rousseau 

1 36 

A  HISTORY   OF   THE 
THIRD   FRENCH   REPUBLIC 

CHAPTER  I 

THE    ANTECEDENTS  OF  THE   FRANCO- 
PRUSSIAN    WAR 

Two  men  were  largely  responsible,  each  in  his 
own  way,  for  the  third  French  Republic, 
Napoleon  III  and  Bismarck.  The  one,  endeav- 
oring partly  at  his  wife's  instigation  to  renew 
the  prestige  of  a  weakening  Empire,  and  the 
other,  furthering  the  ambitions  of  the  Prussian 
Kingdom,  set  in  motion  the  forces  which  cul- 
minated in  the  Fourth  of  September. 

The  causes  of  the  downfall  of  the  Empire 
can  be  traced  back  several  years.  Napoleon  III 
was,  at  heart,  a  man  of  peace  and  had,  in  all 
sincerity,  soon  after  his  accession,  uttered  the 
famous  saying:  "L'empire,  c'est  la  paix."  But 
the  military  glamour  of  the  Napoleonic  name 
led  the  nephew,  like  the  uncle,  into  repeated 
wars.  These  had,  in  most  cases,  been  success- 
ful, exceptions,  such  as  the  unfortunate  Mexi- 
can expedition,  seeming  negligible.  They  had 


2         THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

sometimes  even  resulted  in  territorial  aggran- 
dizement. Napoleon  III  was,  therefore,  desir- 
ous of  establishing  once  for  all  the  so-called 
*' natural"  frontiers  of  France  along  the  Rhine 
by  the  annexation  of  those  Rhenish  provinces 
which,  during  the  First  Empire  and  before,  had 
for  a  score  of  years  been  part  of  the  French 
nation. 

On  the  other  hand,  though  France  was  still 
considered  the  leading  continental  power,  and 
though  its  military  superiority  seemed  unas- 
sailable, the  imperial  regime  was  unquestion- 
ably growing  "stale."  The  Emperor  himself, 
always  a  mystical  fatalist  rather  than  the  hewer 
of  his  own  fortune,  felt  the  growing  inertia  of 
his  final  malady.  A  lavishly  luxurious  court 
had  been  imitated  by  a  pleasure-loving  capital. 
This  had  brought  in  its  train  relaxed  standards 
of  governmental  morals  and  had  seriously 
weakened  the  fibre  of  many  military  com- 
manders. Outwardly  the  Empire  seemed  as 
glorious  as  ever,  and  in  1867  France  invited 
the  world  to  a  gorgeous  exposition  in  the 
"Ville-lumiere."  But  Paris  was  more  emo- 
tional year  by  year,  and  the  Tuileries  and 
Saint-Cloud  were  dominated  by  a  narrow- 


BEFORE  THE  FRANCO-PRUSSIAN  WAR    3 

minded  and  spoiled  Empress.  Court  intrigues 
were  rife  and  drawing-room  generals  were  to 
be  found  in  real  life,  as  well  as  in  Offenbach's 
"Grande  Duchesse."  But  nobody,  except  per- 
haps Napoleon  himself,  realized  how  the 
Empire  had  declined.  The  Empress  merely 
felt  that  it  was  time  to  do  something  stirring, 
and,  without  necessarily  waging  war,  to  assert 
again  the  pre-eminence  in  Europe  of  France, 
weakened  in  1866  by  the  unexpected  outcome 
of  the  rivalry  between  Austria  and  Prussia  for 
preponderance  among  the  German  States. 

Beyond  the  eastern  frontier  of  France  a 
nation  was  growing  in  ambition  and  power. 
Prussia  still  remembered  the  warlike  achieve- 
ments of  Frederick  the  Great,  although  since 
those  days  its  military  efficiency  had  at  times 
undergone  a  decline.  But  now,  under  the  reign 
of  King  William,  guided  by  a  vigorous  minis- 
ter, Bismarck,  an  example,  whatever  his  admir- 
ers may  say,  of  the  brutal  and  unscrupulous 
Junker,  the  Prussian  Government  had  for  some 
time  tried  to  impose  its  leadership  on  the  other 
German  States.  Some  of  these  were  far  from 
anxious  to  accept  it.  In  the  furtherance  of 
Prussian  schemes,  Bismarck  had  been  able  to 


4         THE  THIRD   FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

inflict  a  diplomatic  rebuff  on  Napoleon,  as  well 
as  a  severe  military  defeat  on  Austria. 

In  1866,  Prussia  won  from  Austria  the  im- 
portant victory  of  Koniggratz  or  Sadowa,  and 
thereby  asserted  its  leadership.  The  outcome 
was  a  check  to  Napoleon,  who  had  expected  a 
different  result.  Moreover,  by  it  Bismarck 
was  encouraged  to  pursue  his  plans  for  the 
consolidation  of  Germany  under  a  still  more 
openly  acknowledged  Prussian  supremacy.  A 
crafty  and  utterly  unscrupulous  diplomat,  he 
was  able  to  mislead  Napoleon  and  his  unskilful 
ministers. 

Soon  after  Sadowa  the  Emperor  tried  to 
obtain  territorial  compensation  from  Prussia. 
He  wished,  in  return  for  recognition  of  Prus- 
sia's new  position  and  of  the  projected  union 
of  North  and  South  Germany  minus  Austria, 
to  obtain  the  cession  of  territories  on  the  left 
bank  of  the  Rhine,  or  an  alliance  for  the  con- 
quest and  annexation  of  Belgium  to  France. 
Such  schemes  having  failed,  Napoleon  tried 
next  to  satisfy  French  jingoism  by  the  acquisi- 
tion of  the  Duchy  of  Luxembourg.  This  move 
resulted  only  in  securing  the  evacuation  by  its 
Prussian  garrison  of  the  Luxembourg  fortress 


BEFORE  THE  FRANCO-PRUSSIAN  WAR    5 

and  the  neutralization  of  the  duchy.  From 
that  time  on,  tension  increased  between  France 
and  Prussia.  Bismarck  was,  indeed,  more 
anxious  for  war  than  Napoleon.  He  suspected 
the  weakness  of  the  French  Empire,  he  de- 
spised its  leaders,  he  realized  the  advance  in 
military  efTiciency  of  his  own  country,  and  his 
aim  was  unswerving  to  establish  a  Prussianized 
German  Empire  at  the  cost,  if  possible,  of  the 
downfall  of  France.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  France, 
as  now,  was  far  from  being  permeated  with  mili- 
tarism and,  a  few  months  before  the  war  in 
1870,  the  military  budget  was  actually  reduced. 
The  occasion  for  a  dispute  arrived  with  the 
suggested  candidacy  of  Leopold  of  Hohen- 
zollern-Sigmaringen,  a  German  prince  related 
to  the  King  of  Prussia,  to  the  crown  of  Spain. 
As  early  as  1868,  intrigues  had  begun  to  put  a 
Prussian  on  the  Spanish  throne,  but  Napoleon 
had  not  as  yet  been  disturbed.  It  was  not  until 
1870  that  he  took  the  matter  seriously.  In 
July,  Prince  Leopold  accepted  the  crown, 
egged  on  by  Bismarck,  and  with  the  fiction  of 
the  approval  of  King  William  as  head  of  the 
Hohenzollerns,  as  distinguished  from  his  posi- 
tion as  King  of  Prussia. 


6    THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

At  that  time  the  French  Emperor  was  in 
precarious  health  and  scarcely  in  full  control  of 
his  powers.  The  French  people  at  large  were 
pacifically  inclined  and  would  have  asked  for 
nothing  better  than  to  remain  at  home  instead 
of  fighting  about  a  foreigner's  candidacy  to  an 
alien  throne.  But,  unfortunately,  the  Empress 
Eugenie  was  for  war.  The  Government,  too, 
was  in  the  hands  of  second-rate  and  hesitating 
diplomats.  Emile  Ollivier,  the  chief  of  the 
Cabinet,  was  an  orator  more  than  a  statesman, 
and  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  the  due 
de  Gramont,  was  a  conceited  mediocrity  more 
and  more  involved  in  his  own  mistakes.  In 
consequence,  the  attitude  of  the  Government 
was  not  so  much  deliberate  desire  for  war  as 
provocative  bluster,  of  which  Bismarck  was 
quick  to  take  advantage.  The  Cabinet  was 
egged  on  by  Eugenie's  adherents,  the  militants, 
who  had  been  looking  for  an  insult  since 
Sadowa,  and  by  obstreperous  journalists  and 
noisy  boulevard  mobs,  whose  manifestations 
were  unfortunately  taken,  even  by  the  Corps 
legislatif,  for  the  voice  of  France. 

In  consequence,  blunder  after  blunder  was 
made.  The  ministers  worked  at  cross-purposes, 


BEFORE  THE  FRANCO-PRUSSIAN  WAR    7 

without  due  consultation  and  without  consid- 
eration of  the  effect  of  their  actions  on  an  in- 
flamed public  opinion  or  on  prospective  Euro- 
pean alliances.  Stated  in  terms  of  diplomatic 
procedure,  the  aim  of  the  French  Cabinet  was 
to  humiliate  Prussia  by  forcing  its  Govern- 
ment to  acknowledge  a  retreat.  King  William 
was  not  seeking  war  and  was  probably  willing 
to  make  honorable  concessions.  Bismarck,  on 
the  contrary,  desired  war,  if  it  could  be  under 
favorable  diplomatic  auspices,  and  the  Hohen- 
zollern  candidacy  was  a  direct  provocation. 
He  wanted  France  to  seem  the  aggressor,  in 
view  of  the  effect  both  on  neutral  Europe, 
and  particularly  on  the  South  German  States, 
which  he  wished  to  draw  into  alliance  under 
the  menace  of  French  attack. 

The  French  Ambassador  to  the  King  of 
Prussia,  Benedetti,  was  instructed  to  demand 
the  withdrawal  of  Prince  Leopold's  candidacy. 
This  demand  followed  a  very  arrogant  state- 
ment to  the  Corps  legislatif,  on  July  6,  by  the 
due  de  Gramont.  The  assumption  was  that 
Prince  Leopold's  presence  on  the  Spanish 
throne  would  be  dangerous  to  the  honor  and 
interests  of  France,  by  exposing  the  country 


8    THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

on  two  sides  to  Prussian  influence.  King 
William  was,  on  the  whole,  willing  to  make  a 
concession  to  avoid  international  complica- 
tions, but  he  obviously  wished  not  to  appear 
to  act  under  pressure.  M.  Benedetti  went  to 
Ems  and,  on  July  9,  he  laid  the  French  de- 
mands before  the  King.  After  long-drawn-out 
discussion  the  French  Government  asked  for 
a  categorical  reply  by  July  12.  On  that  day 
the  father  of  Prince  Leopold,  Prince  Antony 
of  Hohenzollern,  in  a  telegram  to  Spain,  for- 
mally withdrew  his  son's  name.  The  King  had 
planned  to  give  his  consent  to  this  apparently 
spontaneous  action  on  the  part  of  the  candi- 
date's family,  when  officially  informed.  Thus 
France  would  obtain  its  ends  and  the  King 
himself  would  not  be  involved. 

Unfortunately  the  thoughtlessness  of  the 
head  of  the  French  Ministry  spoiled  every- 
thing. Instead  of  waiting  a  day  for  the  King's 
ratification,  Emile  Ollivier,  desirous  also  of 
peace,  hastened  to  make  public  the  telegram 
from  the  Prince  of  Hohenzollern.  Thereupon 
the  leaders  of  the  war  party  in  the  Corps  legis- 
latif  at  once  pointed  out  that  the  telegram  was 
not  accompanied  by  the  signature  of  the  Prus- 


BEFORE  THE  FRANCO-PRUSSIAN  WAR    9 

sian  monarch,  declared  that  the  Cabinet  had 
been  outwitted,  and  clamored  for  definite 
guarantees.  Stung  by  the  charge  of  inefficiency, 
the  would-be  statesman  Gramont  immedi- 
ately accentuated  his  stipulations  and  de- 
manded that  the  King  of  Prussia  guarantee 
not  to  support  in  future  the  candidacy  of  a 
Hohenzollern  to  the  Spanish  throne. 

Matters  were  rapidly  reaching  an  impasse, 
and  Bismarck  was  correspondingly  elated,  be- 
cause France  was  appearing  to  Europe  a 
trouble-maker.  The  due  de  Gramont  and 
Emile  Ollivier  committed  the  error  of  dictat- 
ing a  letter  to  the  Prussian  Ambassador  for 
him  to  transmit  to  the  King,  to  be  in  turn  sent 
back  as  his  reply.  King  William  was  offended 
by  this  high-handed  procedure.  He  had  al- 
ready told  comte  Benedetti  at  Ems  that  a 
satisfactory  letter  was  on  its  way  from  Prince 
Antony  and  had  promised  him  another  inter- 
view upon  its  arrival.  After  receiving  the 
dispatch  from  his  ambassador  at  Paris  com- 
municating Gramont's  formulas,  he  sent 
word  to  Benedetti  that  Prince  Leopold  was 
no  longer  a  candidate  and  that  the  incident 
was  closed.  Nor  was  the  King  willing  to  grant 


10        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

Benedetti's  urgent  requests  for  an  interview 
(July  13). 

The  King  and  the  French  Ambassador  had 
remained  perfectly  courteous,  and  the  next 
day,  at  the  railway  station,  they  took  leave  of 
each  other  with  marks  of  respect.  Things  were 
not  yet  hopeless,  until  Bismarck,  by  a  trick  of 
which  he  afterwards  bragged,  caused  a  dis- 
patch to  be  published  implying  that  Benedetti 
had  been  so  persistent  in  pushing  his  demands 
that  King  William  had  been  obliged  to  snub 
him.  The  French  were  led  to  believe  that  their 
representative  had  been  insulted,  and  neutrals 
sided  with  Prussia  as  the  aggrieved  party. 
After  deliberation  the  French  Ministry  decided 
on  war  and  the  decision  was  blindly  ratified  by 
the  Corps  legislatif  on  July  15.  At  this  meet- 
ing Emile  Ollivier  made  his  famous .  remark 
that  the  Ministry  accepted  responsibility  for 
the  war  with  a  "clear  conscience."  His  actual 
words,  "le  coeur  leger,"  seemed,  however,  to 
imply  "with  a  light  heart,"  and  thereafter 
weighed  heavily  against  him  in  the  minds  of 
Frenchmen. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  FRANCO-PRUSSIAN  WAR  —  THE  GOVERNMENT 
OF  NATIONAL  DEFENCE 

September,  1870,  to  Februaury,  1871 

On  July  19  the  French  Embassy  at  Berlin  de- 
clared a  state  of  war.  Paris  was  wild  with  en- 
thusiasm and  eager  for  an  advance  on  Berlin. 
The  provinces  were  for  the  most  part  cool,  but 
accepted  the  war  calmly  because  they  were 
assured  of  an  easy  victory.  The  leaders  of  the 
two  nations  had  for  each  other  equal  contempt. 
*'Ce  n'est  pas  un  homme  serieux,"  Napoleon 
had  once  said  of  Bismarck,  and  Bismarck 
thought  Napoleon  "stupid  and  sentimental." 
Meanwhile  each  nation  had  eyes  on  the  terri- 
tory of  the  other:  France  was  ready  to  claim 
the  Rhine  frontier;  Prussia  wanted  all  it  could 
get,  and  certainly  Alsace  and  Lorraine.  The 
idea,  so  often  repeated  by  the  Germans  since 
the  war,  that  these  provinces  were  annexed 
because  they  had  once  been  German,  was  not 
in  Bismarck's  mind,  —  "that  is  a  Professor's 
reason,"  he  said.^  He  wanted  Strassburg  be- 

^  Moritz  Busch,  Bismarck,  vol.  i,  chap.  i. 


12        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

cause  its  commanding  position  and  the  wedge 
of  Wissembourg  could  cut  off  northern  from 
southern  Germany.  The  frontier  of  the  Vosges 
was  as  desirable  to  the  Germans  as  the  Rhine 
to  the  French. 

From  the  beginning  all  went  wrong  in 
France.  The  Government  found  itself  left  in 
the  lurch  by  the  European  states  whose  alli- 
ance it  had  expected.  Moreover,  mobilization 
proceeded  slowly  and  in  utter  confusion.  In 
spite  of  Marshal  Le  Boeuf's  famous  exclama- 
tion ("II  ne  manquera  pas  un  bouton  de 
guetre"),  never  did  a  nation  enter  on  a  war  less 
prepared  than  the  French.  On  the  other  hand, 
all  Germany,  well  trained  and  ready,  sprang  to 
the  side  of  Prussia.  The  whole  military  force 
was  grouped  in  three  armies  —  under  Stein- 
metz,  Prince  Frederick  Charles,  and  the  Crown 
Prince.  But,  meanwhile,  it  seemed  necessary 
to  the  French  to  give  a  semblance  of  military 
achievement.  The  Emperor  had  started  from 
Paris  on  July  28  leaving  the  Empress  as  regent. 
On  August  2,  a  vain  military  display  with 
largely  superior  forces  was  made  across  the 
frontier  at  Saarbriicken,  a  practically  unpro- 
tected place  was  taken,  and  the  Emperor  was 


THE  FRANCO-PRUSSIAN  WAR  i3 

able  to  send  home  word  that  the  Prince  Im- 
perial had  received  his  "baptism  of  fire"  and 
that  the  soldiers  wept  at  seeing  him  calmly 
pick  up  a  bullet.  The  same  day  King  William 
took  command  of  the  German  forces  at  Mainz, 
and  on  August  4  the  army  of  the  Crown  Prince 
entered  Alsace  and  defeated  at  Wissembourg 
the  division  of  about  twelve  thousand  men  of 
General  Abel  Douay,  who  was  killed.  On  the 
6th  Mac-Mahon,  with  a  larger  force,  met  the 
still  more  numerous  Germans  somewhat  farther 
back  at  Worth,  Frosch wilier,  and  Reichsoffen, 
and  was  utterly  routed  with  a  loss  of  over 
ten  thousand  in  killed,  wounded,  and  taken. 
Alsace  was  thus  completely  exposed  to  the 
enemy,  and  the  road  was  open  to  Luneville 
and  Nancy.  On  the  same  day,  German  armies 
under  Steinmetz  and  Prince  Frederick  Charles 
crossed  into  Lorraine  at  Saarbriicken  and 
engaged  the  troops  of  the  French  general 
Frossard  at  Forbach  and  Spicheren,  inflicting 
on  them  a  severe  repulse.  Meanwhile  Fros- 
sard's  superior,  Bazaine,  though  not  far  away, 
did  not  move  a  finger  to  help  him.  "If  Fros- 
sard wanted  the  baton  of  marshal  of  France  he 
could  win  it  alone." 


i4        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

The  news  of  these  disasters  was  a  terrible 
shock  to  Paris.  The  ''liberal"  OUivier  Cabinet 
was  overthrown  and  replaced  by  a  reactionary 
one  led  by  General  Cousin-Montauban,  comte 
de  Palikao.  The  Emperor  withdrew  from  mili- 
tary leadership  and  Marshal  Bazaine  received 
supreme  command.  Bazaine  was  a  brave  sol- 
dier, but  a  poor  general-in-chief,  and  withal  a 
self-seeking  man,  incompetent  to  deal  with  the 
difTiculties  in  which  France  found  itself.  He 
was  perhaps  not  a  conscious  traitor  in  the  great 
disaster  which  soon  came  to  pass,  but  he 
thought  more  of  himself  than  of  his  country. 
At  the  time  we  are  concerned  with  he  was  con- 
sidered the  coming  man.  Meanwhile  Mac- 
Mahon,  cut  off  from  Bazaine's  main  army,  fell 
back,  between  August  6  and  August  17,  to 
Chalons.  Bazaine  was  apparently  without  in- 
telligent strategic  plans.  He  professed  to  be 
desirous  of  concentrating  at  Verdun,  but  was 
afraid  to  get  out  of  reach  of  Metz.  He  won 
first  an  indecisive  battle  at  Borny  (August 
14),  which  was  unproductive  of  any  concrete 
advantage.  On  August  16,  he  let  himself  be 
turned  back,  by  an  enemy  only  half  as  numer- 
ous, at  Rezonville  (Vionville,  Mars-la-Tour). 


THE  FRANCO-PRUSSIAN  WAR  i5 

On  the  18th,  he  encountered,  on  the  contrary, 
a  much  larger  force  at  Saint-Privat  (Grave- 
lotte)  and  let  himself  be  cooped  up  in  Metz. 
Critics  of  Bazaine  say  that  he  could  have 
turned  both  Rezonville  and  Gravelotte  to  the 
advantage  of  the  French. 

The  familiar  military  uncertainties  now  be- 
gan to  show  themselves  in  the  movements 
of  Mac-Mahon  and  his  troops.  The  armies  of 
Steinmetz  and  of  Frederick  Charles  were  united 
under  command  of  the  latter  to  beleaguer 
Metz,  and  a  smaller  force  under  Prince  Albert 
of  Saxony  was  thrown  off  to  cooperate  with  the 
army  of  the  Crown  Prince  in  its  advance  on 
Paris.  Mac-Mahon  had  collected  about  one 
hundred  and  twenty  thousand  men,  and  Na- 
poleon, without  real  authority  except  as  a 
meddler,  was  with  him.  The  plan  was  origi- 
nally to  fall  back  for  the  protection  of  Paris, 
but  the  Empress-Regent  was  afraid  to  have  a 
defeated  Emperor  return  to  the  capital  lest 
revolution  ensue,  and  Palikao  urged  a  swift 
advance  to  rescue  Metz,  crushing  Prince  Al- 
bert of  Saxony  on  the  way,  taking  Frede- 
rick Charles  between  the  two  fires  of  rescuers 
and  besieged,  with  the  Crown  Prince  still  too 


i6        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

far  away  to  be  dangerous.  Meanwhile  Mac- 
Mahon  moved  to  Reims,  which  was  neither 
on  the  direct  road  to  Paris  nor  to  Metz,  and  at 
last  started  to  the  rescue  of  Bazaine  by  the 
roundabout  route  of  Montmedy,  continually 
hesitating  and  retracing  his  steps.  On  receiv- 
ing news  of  his  progress,  the  armies  of  the 
Crown  Prince  and  of  Prince  Albert  converged 
northward.  Mac-Mahon's  right  wing,  under 
General  de  Failly,  was  surprised  at  Beaumont, 
and  finally  the  French  army  in  disorder  drew 
up  in  most  unfavorable  positions  between  the 
Meuse  and  the  Belgian  frontier,  to  face  a  foe 
twice  as  numerous  and  already  nearly  com- 
pletely surrounding  it.  The  battle  of  Sedan 
broke  out  on  September  1.  Mac-Mahon  was 
wounded  early  in  the  fight  and  gave  over  the 
command  to  Ducrot,  in  turn  superseded  by 
Wimpffen,  already  designated  by  the  Ministry 
to  replace  Mac-Mahon  in  case  of  accident. 
After  a  fierce  battle  it  fell  to  General  de 
Wimpffen  to  capitulate  on  September  2.  By 
the  disaster  of  Sedan  the  Germans  captured 
the  Emperor,  a  marshal  of  France,  and  the 
whole  of  one  of  its  two  armies. 
The  news  of  the  overwhelming  defeat  of 


THE  FRANCO-PRUSSIAN  WAR  17 

Sedan  struck  Paris  like  a  thunderbolt.  Jules 
Favre  proposed  to  the  Corps  legislatif  the  over- 
throw of  Napoleon  and  of  his  dynasty;  Thiers, 
who  favored  the  restoration  of  the  Orleans 
family,  wished  the  convocation  of  a  Constitu- 
ent Assembly ;  the  comte  de  Palikao  asked  for 
a  provisional  governing  commission  of  which 
he  should  be  the  lieutenant-general.  But,  be- 
fore anything  was  done,  the  Paris  mob  invaded 
the  legislative  chamber.  Gambetta,  with  the 
majority  of  the  Paris  Deputies,  went  to  the 
Hotel  de  Ville,  and  to  prevent  a  more  radical 
set  from  seizing  the  Government,  proclaimed 
the  Republic  (September  4).  A  Government 
of  National  Defence  was  constituted  of  which 
General  Trochu  became  President,  Jules  Favre 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  and  Gambetta 
Minister  of  the  Interior.  Thiers  was  not  a 
member,  but  gave  his  support.  Eugenie  es- 
caped from  the  Tuileries  to  the  home  of  her 
American  dentist.  Dr.  Evans,  and  then  fled  to 
England. 

Jules  Favre  was  innocent  enough  to  think 
that  the  Germans  would  be  satisfied  with  the 
overthrow  of  Napoleon,  and  he  was  rash 
enough  to  declare  that  France  would  not  yield 


i8        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

"an  inch  of  its  territory  or  a  stone  of  its  for- 
tresses." But,  in  an  interview  with  Bismarck 
at  Ferrieres,  on  September  19,  he  reaUzed  the 
oppressiveness  of  the  German  demands.  The 
rhetorical  and  emotional,  even  tearful,  Jules 
Favre  was  faced  by  a  harsh  and  unrelenting 
conqueror,  and  the  meeting  ended  without  an 
agreement.  Meanwhile  Paris  was  invested  by 
the  German  forces  of  the  Crown  Prince  and 
the  Prince  of  Saxony  after  a  defeat  of  some 
French  troops  at  Chatillon.  William,  Bis- 
marck, and  Moltke  took  up  their  station  at 
Versailles.  Europe,  made  suspicious  by  the 
numerous  changes  of  government  in  France  in 
the  nineteenth  century,  and  moved  also  by 
selfish  reasons,  refused  its  aid  and  looked  on 
with  indifference.  Thiers  made  a  fruitless 
quest  through  Europe  for  practical  aid,  bring- 
ing home  only  meaningless  expressions  of 
sympathy. 

Unfortunately  even  a  number  of  people  in 
the  provinces,  relaxed  by  the  factitious  pros- 
perity of  the  imperial  regime,  were  too  willing 
to  yield  to  the  invaders.  Where  resistance  was 
brave  it  appeared  fruitless:  Strassburg  capit- 
ulated on  September  28,  after  the  Germans 


THE  FRANCO-PRUSSIAN  WAR  19 

had  burned  its  library  and  bombarded  the 
cathedral.  A  scratch  army  on  the  Loire, 
under  La  Motterouge,  was  beaten  at  Artenay 
(October  10)  and  had  to  evacuate  Orleans. 
On  October  18,  the  Germans  captured  Cha- 
teaudun  after  heroic  resistance  by  National 
Guards  and  sharpshooters. 

Though  one  of  the  two  great  French  armies 
was  in  captivity  and  the  other  besieged  in 
Metz,  the  idea  of  submission  never  for  a  mo- 
ment entered  Gambetta's  head.  Paris  was 
under  the  command  of  Trochu,  patriotic  and 
brave,  but  military  critic  rather  than  leader, 
discouraged  from  the  beginning,  and  unable 
to  take  advantage  of  opportunities.  A  delega- 
tion of  the  Government  of  National  Defence 
had  established  itself  at  Tours  to  avoid  the 
German  besiegers,  but  two  of  its  members, 
Cremieux  andJGlais-Bizoin,  were  elderly  and 
weak.  Admiral  Fourichon  was  the  most  com- 
petent. Gambetta  escaped  from  Paris  by 
balloon  on  October  7,  and,  reaching  Tours  in 
safety,  made  himself  by  his  energy  and  patri- 
otic inspiration,  practically  dictator  and  or- 
ganizer of  resistance  to  the  invaders. 

Leon  Gambetta,  a  young  lawyer  politician 


20        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

of  thirty-two,  of  inexhaustible  energy  and  im- 
passioned eloquence,  was  the  son  of  an  Itahan 
grocer  settled  at  Cahors.  With  the  help  of  his 
assistant  Charles  de  Freycinet,  he  levied  and 
armed  in  four  months  six  hundred  thousand 
men,  an  average  of  five  thousand  a  day.  Every- 
thing was  done  in  haste  and  unsatisfactorily,  — 
the  army  of  General  Chanzy  was  equipped 
with  guns  of  fifteen  different  patterns.  But 
Gambetta  did  the  task  of  a  giant,  in  spite  of 
another  crushing  blow  to  France,  the  sur- 
render of  Metz. 

Bazaine  had  let  himself  be  cooped  up  in 
Metz.  Instead  of  being  moved  by  patriotism, 
he  thought  only  of  his  own  interests  and  am- 
bitions. In  the  midst  of  the  cataclysm  which 
had  fallen  on  France  he  aspired  to  hold  the 
position  of  power.  The  Emperor  gone  and  the 
Republic  destined,  Bazaine  thought,  to  fall, 
he  would  be  left  at  the  head  of  the  only  army. 
His  would  be  the  task  of  treating  for  peace 
with  Germany,  and  then  he  would  perhaps  be- 
come in  France  regent  instead  of  the  Empress, 
or  Marshal-Lieutenant  of  the  Empire,  like 
the  Spanish  marshals.  So  he  neglected  favor- 
able military  opportunities,  and  dallied  over 


THE  FRANCO-PRUSSIAN  WAR  21 

plans  of  peace,  while  Bismarck  misled  him  with 
fruitless  propositions  or  false  emissaries  like 
the  adventurer  Regnier.  Finally,  on  October 
27,  Bazaine  had  to  surrender  Metz,  with  three 
marshals  (himself,  Canrobert,  and  Le  Boeuf), 
sixty  generals,  six  thousand  officers,  and  one 
hundred  and  seventy-three  thousand  men. 
France  was  deprived  of  her  last  trained  forces, 
and  the  besieging  army  of  Frederick  Charles 
was  set  free  to  help  in  the  conquest  of  France. 
After  the  war  Bazaine  was  condemned  to 
death,  by  court-martial,  for  treason.  His  sen- 
tence was  commuted  to  life  imprisonment,  but 
he  afterwards  escaped  from  the  fortress  in 
which  he  was  confined  and  died  in  obscurity 
and  disgrace  at  Madrid. 

No  sooner  did  the  news  of  the  capitulation 
of  Metz  reach  Paris  than  a  regrettable  affair 
took  place.  There  was  much  dissatisfaction 
,  with  the  indecision  of  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment, and,  on  October  31,  a  mob  invaded  the 
Hotel  de  Ville  and  arrested  the  chief  members 
of  the  commission.  Fortunately  they  were  re- 
leased later  the  same  day  and  a  plebiscite  of 
November  3  confirmed  the  powers  of  the  Gov- 
ernment of  National  Defence.    Fortunately, 


22        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

too,  within  a  few  days  came  news  of  the  first 
real  success  of  the  French  during  the  war,  the 
battle  of  Coulmiers  (November  9). 

Gambetta  had  succeeded  during  October  in 
organizing  the  Army  of  the  Loire  which,  under 
General  d'Aurelle  de  Paladines,  defeated  the 
Bavarian  forces  of  von  der  Thann  at  Coul- 
miers and  recaptured  Orleans.  The  plan  was 
to  push  on  to  Paris  and  the  objections  of 
d'Aurelle  were  overcome  by  Gambetta.  But 
the  fall  of  Metz  had  released  German  rein- 
forcements. After  an  unsuccessful  contest  by 
the  right  wing  at  Beaune-la-Rolande  (Novem- 
ber 28),  and  a  partial  victory  at  Villepion, 
the  French  were  defeated  in  turn  on  Decem- 
ber 2  at  Loigny  or  Patay  (left  wing),  on  De- 
cember 3  at  Artenay .  The  Germans  reoccupied 
Orleans  and  the  first  Army  of  the  Loire  was  dis- 
persed. The  Government  moved  from  Tours 
to  Bordeaux. 

After  Coulmiers  General  Trochu  had 
planned  a  sortie  from  Paris  to  meet  the  Army 
of  the  Loire.  This  advance  was  under  com- 
mand of  General  Ducrot,  but  was  delayed  by 
trouble  with  pontoon  bridges.  The  various 
battles  of  the  Marne  (November  30-Decem- 


THE  FRANCO-PRUSSIAN  WAR  28 

ber  2)  culminated  in  the  terrible  fight  and 
repulse  of  Villiers  and  Champigny.  In  the 
north,  a  small  army  hastily  brought  together 
under  temporary  command  of  General  Favre 
was  defeated  at  Villers-Bretonneux  and  Amiens 
(November  27). 

The  last  phase  of  the  Franco-Prussian  War 
begins  with  the  crushing  of  the  Army  of  the 
Loire  and  the  check  of  the  advance  to  Cham- 
pigny. With  unwearied  tenacity  Gambetta 
tried  to  reorganize  the  Army  of  the  Loire.  A 
portion  became  the  second  Army  of  the  Loire 
or  of  the  West,  under  Chanzy.  The  rest,  under 
Bourbaki,  became  the  Army  of  the  East. 
Faidherbe  tried  to  revive  the  Army  of  the 
North. 

To  Chanzy,  on  the  whole  the  most  capable 
French  general  of  the  war,  was  assigned  the 
task  of  trying,  with  a  smaller  force,  what  d' Au- 
relle  had  already  failed  in  accomplishing,  a 
drive  on  Paris.  In  this  task  Bourbaki  and 
Faidherbe  were  expected  by  Gambetta  to 
cooperate.  Instead  of  succeeding,  Chanzy, 
bravely  fighting,  was  driven  back,  first  down 
the  Loire,  in  the  long-contested  battle  of  Josnes 
(Villorceau  or  Beaugency)  (December  7-10), 


24        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

then  up  the  valley  of  the  tributary  Loir  to 
Vendome  and  Le  Mans.  There  the  army, 
reduced  almost  to  a  mob,  made  a  new  stand. 
In  a  battle  between  January  10  and  12,  this 
army  was  again  routed  and  what  was  left 
thrown  back  to  Laval. 

Faidherbe,  taking  the  offensive  in  the  north, 
fought  an  indecisive  contest  at  Pont-Noyelles 
(December  23)  and  took  Bapaume  (January  3). 
But  his  endeavor  to  proceed  to  the  assistance 
of  Paris  was  frustrated,  he  was  unable  to  re- 
lieve Peronne,  which  fell  on  January  9,  and  was 
defeated  at  Sain t-Quen tin  on  January  19. 

Bourbaki,  in  spite  of  his  reputation,  showed 
himself  inferior  to  Chanzy  and  Faidherbe. 
He  let  his  army  lose  morale  by  his  hesitation, 
and  then  accepted  with  satisfaction  Freycinet's 
plan  to  move  east  upon  Germany  instead  of 
to  the  rescue  of  Paris.  On  the  eastern  frontier 
Colonel  Denfert-Rochereau  was  tenaciously 
holding  Belfort,  which  was  never  captured  by 
the  Germans  during  the  whole  war.^  Bour- 
baki's  dishearteningly  slow  progress  received 
no  effective  assistance  from  Garibaldi.   This 

*  He  surrendered  by  order  of  the  Government.  The  isolated 
incident  of  the  resistance  of  the  town  of  Bitche  through  all  the 
war  is  no  less  noteworthy. 


THE  FRANCO-PRUSSIAN  WAR  25 

Italian  soldier  of  fortune,  now  somewhat  in  his 
decline,  had  offered  his  services  to  France  and 
was  in  command  of  a  small  body  of  guerillas 
and  sharpshooters,  the  Army  of  the  Vosges. 
With  alternate  periods  of  inactivity,  failure, 
and  success,  Garibaldi  perhaps  did  more  harm 
than  good  to  France.  He  monopolized  the  serv- 
ices of  several  thousand  men,  and  yet,  through 
his  prestige  as  a  distinguished  foreign  volun- 
teer, he  could  not  be  brought  under  control. 
Bourbaki  won  the  battle  of  Villersexel  on  Jan- 
uary 9.  Pushing  on  to  Belfort  he  was  defeated 
only  a  few  miles  from  the  town  in  the  battle 
of  H6ricourt,  or  Montbeliard,  along  the  river 
Lisaine.  The  army,  now  transformed  into 
panic-stricken  fugitives,  made  its  way  pain- 
fully through  bitter  cold  and  snow,  and  Bour- 
baki tried  to  commit  suicide.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded by  General  Clinchant.  When  Paris 
capitulated,  on  January  28,  and  an  armistice 
was  signed,  this  Army  of  the  East  was  omitted. 
Jules  Favre  at  Paris  failed  to  notify  Gambetta 
in  the  provinces  of  this  exception,  and  the 
army,  hearing  of  the  armistice,  ceased  its 
flight,  only  to  be  relentlessly  followed  by  the 
Germans.   Finally,  on  February  1,  the  rem- 


26        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

nants  of  the  army  fled  across  the  Swiss  fron- 
tier and  found  safety  on  neutral  soil. 

Meanwhile,  in  Paris  the  tightening  of  the 
Prussian  lines  had  made  the  food  problem 
more  and  more  difTicult,  and  the  population 
were  reduced  to  small  rations  and  unpalatable 
diet.  After  Ghampigny  the  German  general 
von  Moltke  communicated  with  the  besieged, 
informing  them  of  the  defeat  of  Orleans,  and 
the  means  seemed  opened  for  negotiations. 
But  the  opportunity  was  rejected,  and  the 
Government  even  refused  to  be  represented 
at  an  international  conference,  then  opening 
in  London,  because  of  its  unwillingness  to 
apply  to  Bismarck  for  a  safe-conduct  for  its 
representative.  A  chance  to  bring  the  con- 
dition of  France  before  the  Powers  was  neg- 
lected. Between  December  21  and  26,  a  sally 
to  Le  Bourget  was  driven  back,  and,  on  the 
next  day,  the  bombardment  of  the  forts  began. 
On  January  5,  the  Prussian  batteries  opened 
fire  on  the  city  itself.  On  January  18,  the  Ger- 
mans took  a  spectacular  revenge  for  the  con- 
quests of  Louis  XIV  by  the  coronation  of  King 
William  of  Prussia  as  Emperor  of  the  united 
German  people.  The  ceremony  took  place  in 


THE  FRANCO-PRUSSIAN  WAR  27 

the  great  Galerie  des  Glaces  of  Louis's  magni- 
ficent palace  of  Versailles.  The  very  next  day 
the  triumph  of  the  Germans  received  its  con- 
secration, not  only  by  the  battle  of  Saint- 
Quentin  (already  mentioned),  but  by  the  re- 
pulse of  the  last  offensive  movement  from 
Paris.  To  placate  the  Paris  population  an 
advance  was  made  on  Versailles  with  battal- 
ions largely  composed  of  National  Guards. 
At  Montretout  and  Buzenval  they  were 
routed  and  driven  back  in  a  panic  to  Paris. 
General  Trochu  was  forced  to  resign  the  mili- 
tary governorship  of  Paris,  though  by  a  strange 
contradiction  he  kept  the  presidency  of  the 
Government  of  National  Defence,  and  was  re- 
placed by  General  Vinoy.  On  January  22,  a 
riot  broke  out  in  the  capital  in  which  blood 
was  shed  in  civil  strife.  Finally,  on  January  28, 
Jules  Favre  had  to  submit  to  the  conqueror's 
terms.  Paris  capitulated  and  the  garrison  was 
disarmed,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  thou- 
sand regulars  to  preserve  order,  and  the  Na- 
tional Guard;  a  war  tribute  was  imposed  on 
the  city  and  an  armistice  of  twenty-one  days 
was  signed  to  permit  the  election  and  gather- 
ing of  a  National  Assembly  to  pass  on  terms 


28        THE  THIRD   FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

of  peace.  With  inexcusable  carelessness  Jules 
Favre  neglected  to  warn  Gambetta  in  the  pro- 
vinces that  this  armistice  began  for  the  rest 
of  France  only  on  the  thirty-first  and  that,  as 
already  stated,  the  Army  of  the  East  was  ex- 
cepted from  its  provisions. 

Gambetta  was  furious  at  the  surrender  and 
at  the  presumption  of  Paris  to  decide  for  the 
provinces.  He  preached  a  continuation  of  the 
war,  and  the  intervention  of  Bismarck  was 
necessary  to  prevent  him  from  excluding  from 
the  National  Assembly  all  who  had  had  any 
connection  with  the  imperial  regime.  Jules 
Simon  was  sent  from  Paris  to  counteract  Gam- 
betta's  efforts.  The  latter  yielded  before  the 
prospect  of  civil  war,  withdrew  from  power, 
and,  on  February  8,  elections  were  held  for  the 
National  Assembly. 

The  downfall  of  what  had  been  considered 
the  chief  military  nation  of  Europe  was  due 
to  many  involved  causes.  The  Empire  was 
responsible  for  the  debacle  and  the  Govern- 
ment of  National  Defence  was  unable  to  cre- 
ate everything  out  of  nothing.  Many  people 
were  ready  to  be  discouraged  after  a  first 
defeat,  and  few  realized  what  Germany's  de- 


THE  FRANCO-PRUSSIAN  WAR  29 

mands  were  going  to  be.  The  imperial  army 
was  insufficiently  equipped  and  the  majority 
of  its  generals  were  inefficient  and  lacking  in 
initiative:  there  was  no  preparation,  no  sys- 
tem, little  discipline. 

During  the  period  of  National  Defence  the 
members  of  the  Government  themselves  were 
usually  wanting  in  experience  and  in  diplo- 
macy, and  the  badly  trained  armies  made  up 
of  raw  recruits  were  liable  to  panics  or  unable 
to  follow  up  an  advantage.  There  was  jeal- 
ousy, mistrust,  and  frequent  unwillingness  to 
subordinate  politics  to  patriotism,  or,  at  any 
rate,  to  make  allowances  for  other  forms  of 
patriotism  than  one's  own.  Gambetta  and 
Jules  Favre  were  primarily  orators  and  trib- 
unes and  indulged  in  too  many  wordy  proc- 
lamations, in  which  habit  they  were  followed 
by  General  Trochu.  The  patriotism  and  en- 
thusiasm of  Gambetta  were  undeniable,  but 
he  was  imbued  with  the  principles  and  mem- 
ories of  the  French  Revolution,  including  the 
efficacy  of  national  volunteers,  the  ability  of 
France  to  resist  all  Europe,  and  the  subordi- 
nation of  military  to  civil  authority.  Conse- 
quently, in  a  time  of  stress  he  nagged  the  gen- 


3o        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

erals  and  interfered,  and  gave  free  rein  to  Frey- 
cinet  to  do  the  same.  They  upset  plans  made 
by  experienced  generals,  and  sent  civilians  to 
spy  over  them,  with  power  to  retire  them  from 
command.  They  were,  moreover,  trying  to 
thrust  a  republic  down  the  throats  of  a  hostile 
majority  of  the  population,  for  a  large  propor- 
tion of  those  not  Bonapartists  were  in  favor 
of  a  monarchy.  The  wonder  is,  therefore,  that 
France  was  able  to  do  so  much.  M.  de  Frey- 
cinet  was  not  boasting  when  he  wrote  later, 
"Alone,  without  allies,  without  leaders,  with- 
out an  army,  deprived  for  the  first  time  of 
communication  with  its  capital,  it  resisted  for 
five  months,  with  improvised  resources,  a  for- 
midable enemy  that  the  regular  armies  of  the 
Empire,  though  made  up  of  heroic  soldiers, 
had  not  been  able  to  hold  back  five  weeks."  ^ 

^  La  guerre  en  province,  quoted  by  Welschinger,  La  guerre  de 
1870,  vol.  II,  p.  295. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  ADOLPHE  THIERS 
February,  1871,  to  May,  1878 

The  elections  were  held  in  hot  haste.  The 
short  time  allowed  before  the  convening  of  the 
Assembly  made  the  usual  campaign  impos- 
sible. It  met  at  Bordeaux  on  February  13, 
1871.  The  peace  party  was  in  very  consider- 
able majority,  and  though  Gambetta  received 
the  distinction  of  a  multiple  election  in  nine 
separate  districts,  Thiers  was  chosen  in  twen- 
ty-six. The  radicals  and  advocates  of  guerilla 
warfare  and  of  a  "guerre  a  ou trance"  found 
themselves  few  in  numbers.  Many  of  the 
representatives  had  only  local  or  rural  repu- 
tation. They  were  new  to  parliamentary  life, 
and  in  the  majority  of  cases  were  averse  to 
a  permanent  republican  form  of  government. 
They  would  have  preferred  a  monarchy,  but 
they  were  ready  to  accept  a  provisional  re- 
public which  would  incur  the  task  of  settling 
the  war  with  Germany  and  bear  the  onus 
of  defeat.    They  were  especially  suspicious  of 


32        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

Paris,  and  hostile  to  it  as  the  home  of  fick- 
leness, of  irresponsibility,  and  of  mob  rule. 
They  were  largely  provincial  lawyers  and  rural 
landed  gentry,  conservative  and  clerical,  who 
felt  that  too  much  importance  had  been 
usurped  by  the  Parisian  Government  of  Na- 
tional Defence. 

The  new  Assembly,  therefore,  gradually 
fell  into  several  groups.  On  the  conservative 
side  came  the  Extreme  Right,  made  up  of 
out-and-out  Legitimists,  believing  in  absolu- 
tism and  the  divine  right  of  kings;  the  Right, 
composed  of  monarchists  desirous  of  conciliat- 
ing the  old  regime  with  the  demands  of  mod- 
em times  and  of  making  it  a  practical  form 
of  government;  the  Right  Centre,  consisting 
of  constitutional  monarchists  and  followers  of 
the  Orleans  branch  of  the  house  of  Bourbon. 
Among  the  anti-republicans  the  Bonapartists 
were  almost  negligible.  Next  came  the  Left 
Centre  of  conservative  Republicans,  the  re- 
publican Left,  and  the  radical  Union  republi- 
caine,  partisans  of  Gambetta  and  advanced 
"reformers." 

At  the  first  public  session  of  the  Assembly 
Jules  Gr6vy  was  chosen  presiding  officer.   A 


ADOLPHE  THIERS 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THIERS     33 

former  leader  of  the  opposition  to  the  Em- 
pire, he  had  not  participated  in  affairs  since 
the  Fourth  of  September,  and,  therefore,  had 
not  yet  identified  himself  with  any  set.  Among 
the  Republicans  he  was  averse  to  Gambetta 
and  remained  so  even  when  the  latter  became 
moderate.  On  February  17,  Adolphe  Thiers, 
the  "peace-maker,"  was  by  an  ahnost  unani- 
mous vote  elected  **  Chief  of  the  Executive 
Power  of  the  French  Republic."  It  was  he 
who,  thirty  years  before,  had  fortified  Paris 
that  had  now  fallen  only  by  famine,  who  had 
opposed  the  war  when  it  might  yet  have  been 
averted,  who  had  travelled  over  Europe  to 
defend  the  interests  of  France,  who  had  been 
elected  representative  by  the  choice  of  twen- 
ty-six departments. 

M.  Thiers  formed  a  coalition  cabinet  rep- 
resenting different  shades  of  political  feeling, 
and  in  one  of  his  early  speeches,  on  March 
10,  he  formulated  a  plan  of  party  truce  for  the 
purpose  of  national  reorganization.  This  plan 
was  acquiesced  in  by  the  Assembly  and  bears 
in  history  the  name  of  the  Compact  of  Bor- 
deaux {pade  de  Bordeaux).  France  was  to  con- 
tinue under  a  republican  government,  without 


34        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

injury  to  the  later  claims  of  any  party.  Thiers, 
himself,  as  a  former  Orleanist,  advocated,  at 
least  in  his  relations  with  the  monarchists,  a 
Restoration,  with  the  sine  qua  non  that  an 
attempt  should  be  made  at  a  fusion  of  the 
Legitimists  and  the  Orleanists.  Meanwhile  he 
was  the  chief  executive  official  of  a  republic. 

But,  even  before  the  formulation  of  the 
truce  of  parties,  Thiers  was  in  eager  haste  to 
settle  the  terms  of  peace  with  Germany  before 
the  expiration  of  the  armistice.  The  prelim- 
inaries were  discussed  between  Thiers  and 
Bismarck  at  Versailles.  The  Germans  were 
almost  as  anxious  as  the  French  to  see  the 
end  of  the  war,  and  the  objections  and  delays 
of  Bismarck  were  partly  tactical.  Brief  suc- 
cessive prolongations  of  the  armistice  were 
obtained,  and  finally  the  preliminaries  were 
signed  on  February  26.  Thiers  made  herculean 
efforts  to  keep  for  France  Belfort,  which  Bis- 
mark  claimed,  and  finally  succeeded  on  con- 
dition that  the  German  army  should  occupy 
Paris  from  March  1  to  the  ratification  of  the 
preliminaries  by  the  Assembly.  France  was 
to  give  up  Alsace  and  a  part  of  Lorraine,  in- 
cluding Metz,  and  pay  an  indemnity  of  five 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THIERS     35 

billion  francs.  German  troops  were  to  occupy 
the  conquered  districts  and  evacuate  them 
progressively  as  the  indemnity  was  paid.  The 
peace  discussions  afterwards  continued  at 
Brussels,  and  the  final  treaty  was  signed  at 
Frankfort  on  May  10,  1871. 

No  sooner  were  the  preliminaries  signed 
than  Thiers  returned  post-haste  to  Bordeaux, 
and  obtained  an  almost  immediate  assent 
(March  1),  so  that  the  Germans  were  obliged 
to  forego  a  large  part  of  their  plans  for  a  tri- 
umphal entry  into  Paris  and  a  review  by  the 
Emperor.  Only  one  body  of  thirty  thousand 
men  marched  in  through  one  section  and,  two 
days  later,  evacuated  the  city. 

The  same  meeting  which  ratified  the  pre- 
liminaries of  peace  officially  proclauned  the 
expulsion  of  the  imperial  dynasty  and  declared 
Napoleon  III  responsible  for  the  invasion,  the 
ruin  and  dismemberment  of  France.  The 
same  day  also  beheld  the  pathetic  withdrawal 
of  the  representatives  of  Alsace  and  of  Lor- 
raine, turned  over  to  the  conqueror. 

The  misfortunes  of  France  were  far  from 
ended.  Paris  was  soon  to  break  out  into  re- 
bellion under  the  eyes  of  the  Germans  still  in 


36        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

possession  of  many  of  the  suburbs.  The  enemy 
looked  on  and  saw  Frenchman  kilUng  French- 
man in  civil  war. 

It  had  become  obvious  that  the  division  of 
administration  between  Bordeaux  and  Paris 
was  making  government  difficult.  The  As- 
sembly, still  suspicious  of  Paris,  decided  to 
transfer  its  place  of  meeting  to  Versailles.  But 
Paris  itself  was  in  a  state  of  nervous  hysteria 
as  a  result  of  the  long  and  exhausting  siege 
ifievre  obsidionale) .  The  Paris  proletariat  were 
as  jealous  and  suspicious  of  the  Assembly  as 
the  Assembly  of  them.  The  suggestion  of  a 
transfer  to  Versailles  instead  of  to  Paris  seemed 
a  direct  challenge.  Versailles  recalled  too 
easily  Louis  XIV  and  the  Bourbons.  The 
monarchical  sympathies  of  the  Assembly 
were,  moreover,  well  known,  and  the  Parisians 
dreaded  the  restoration  of  royalty.  The  peo- 
ple were  hungry  and  penniless,  and  industry 
and  commerce  had  almost  completely  ceased. 
The  city  was  full,  besides,  of  soldiers  disarmed 
through  the  armistice  and  ready  for  riot.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  National  Guards,  a  large 
body  of  semi-disciplined  militia  made  up,  at 
least  in  part,  of  the  dregs  of  the  populace,  had 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THIERS     87 

been  allowed  to  retain  their  weapons,  and 
many  of  them  gave  their  time  to  drunkenness, 
loafing,  and  listening  to  agitators.  Some 
rather  injudicious  condemnations  of  leaders 
in  the  October  riots  merely  aggravated  the 
dissatisfaction.  All  this  led  to  the  Commune. 

The  leaders  of  the  Commune  were,  some 
of  them,  sincere  though  visionary  reformers, 
whose  hearts  rankled  at  the  sufferings  of  the 
poor  and  the  inequalities  of  wealth  and  privi- 
lege. The  majority  were  mischief-makers  and 
cafe  orators,  loquacious  but  incompetent  or 
inexperienced,  without  definite  plans  and  un- 
fit to  be  leaders,  some  vicious  and  some  dis- 
honest. The  rank  and  file  soon  became  a  law- 
less mob,  ready  to  burn  and  murder,  imitating, 
in  their  ignorant  cult  of  "liberty,"  the  worst 
phases  of  the  French  Revolution  and  its  Reign 
of  Terror.  Still,  the  Communards  have  their 
admirers  to-day,  and,  as  the  world  advances 
in  radicalism,  it  is  not  unlikely  that  the  Jaco- 
bin Charles  Delescluze,  the  bloodthirsty  Raoul 
Rigault,  and  the  brilliant  and  scholarly  Gus- 
tave  Flourens  will  be  considered  heroic  pre- 
cursors. 

The  idea  of  the  Commune  was  decentral- 


38        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

ization.  It  was  an  experiment  aiming  at  a  free 
and  autonomous  Paris  serving  as  model  for 
the  other  self-governing  communes  of  France, 
united  merely  for  their  common  needs.  It 
amounted  almost  to  the  quasi-independence 
of  each  separate  town.  But  mixed  up  with 
the  theorists  of  the  Commune  were  count- 
less anarchist  revolutionaries,  followers  of  the 
teachings  of  Blanqui,  as  well  as  admirers  of 
the  great  Revolution  which  overthrew  the  old 
regime,  and  socialists  of  various  types. 

The  germs  of  the  movement  which  was  to 
culminate  in  the  Commune  were  visible  at  an 
early  hour.  The  dissatisfaction  of  the  Radi- 
cals with  the  moderation  of  the  Government 
of  National  Defence,  the  riots  of  October  31 
and  January  22  were  all  symptoms  of  the  dis- 
content of  the  proletariat.  Indeed,  the  proc- 
lamation of  the  Republic,  on  September  4, 
was  itself  an  object  lesson  in  illegality  to  the 
malcontents.  Organized  dissatisfaction  began 
to  centre  about  the  obstreperous  and  dis- 
orderly, but  armed  and  now  "federated" 
National  Guards.  Manifestoes  signed  by  self- 
appointed  committees  of  plebeian  patriots 
appeared  on  the  walls  of  Paris.   These  com- 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THIERS     3q 

mittees  finally  merged  into  the  "Comite  cen- 
tral," or  were  replaced  by  it.  This  commit- 
tee advocated  the  trial  and  imprisonment  of 
the  members  of  the  Government  of  National 
Defence,  and  protested  against  the  disarma- 
ment of  the  National  Guards  and  the  en- 
trance of  the  Germans  into  Paris. 

The  Government  was  almost  helpless.  The 
few  regulars  left  under  arms  in  Paris  were  of 
doubtful  reliance,  and  General  d'Aurelle  de 
Paladines,  now  in  command  of  the  National 
Guards,  was  not  obeyed.  A  certain  number  of 
artillery  guns  in  Paris  had  been  paid  for  by 
popular  subscription,  and  the  rumor  spread  at 
one  time  that  these  were  to  be  turned  over  to 
the  Germans.  The  populace  seized  them  and 
dragged  them  to  different  parts  of  the  city. 

The  Government  decided  at  last  to  act 
boldly  and,  on  March  18,  dispatched  General 
Lecomte  with  some  troops  to  seize  the  guns  at 
Montmartre.  But  the  mob  surrounded  the 
soldiers,  and  these  mutinied  and  refused  to 
obey  orders  to  fire,  and  arrested  their  own 
commander.  Later  in  the  day  General  Le- 
comte was  shot  with  General  Clement  Thomas, 
a  former  commander  of  the  National  Guard, 


4o        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

who  rather  thoughtlessly  and  out  of  curiosity 
had  mingled  with  the  crowd  and  was  recog- 
nized. 

Thus  armed  forces  in  Paris  were  in  direct 
rebellion.  Other  outlying  quarters  had  also 
sprung  into  insurrection.  M.  Thiers,  who  had 
recently  arrived  from  Bordeaux,  and  the  chief 
government  officials  quartered  in  Paris,  with- 
drew to  Versailles.  Paris  had  to  be  besieged 
again  and  conquered  by  force  of  arms. 

In  Paris  the  first  elections  of  the  Commune 
were  held  on  March  26.  On  April  3  an  armed 
sally  of  the  Communards  towards  Versailles 
was  repulsed  with  the  loss  of  some  of  their 
chief  leaders,  including  Flourens.  Meanwhile, 
the  Army  of  Versailles  had  been  organized 
and  put  under  the  command  of  Mac-Mahon. 
Discipline  was  restored  and  the  advance  on 
Paris  began. 

As  time  passed  in  the  besieged  city  the 
saner  men  were  swept  into  the  background 
and  reckless  counsels  prevailed.  Some  of  the 
military  leaders  were  competent  men,  such  as 
Cluseret,  who  had  been  a  general  in  the  Ameri- 
can army  during  the  Civil  War,  or  Rossel,  a 
trained  officer  of  engineers.   But  many  were 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THIERS     4i 

foreign  adventurers  and  soldiers  of  fortune: 
Dombrowski,  Wrobleski,  La  Cecilia.  The 
civil  administration  grew  into  a  reproduction 
of  the  worst  phases  of  the  Reign  of  Terror. 
Frenzied  women  egged  on  destruction  and 
slaughter,  and  when  at  last  the  national 
troops  fought  their  way  into  the  conquered 
city,  it  was  amid  the  flaming  ruins  of  many  of 
its  proudest  buildings  and  monuments. 

The  siege  lasted  two  months.  On  May  21, 
the  Army  of  Versailles  crossed  the  fortifica- 
tions and  there  foflowed  the  "Seven  Days' 
Battle,"  a  street-by-street  advance  marked 
by  desperate  resistance  by  the  Conmiunards 
and  bloodthirsty  reprisals  by  the  Versaillais. 
Civil  war  is  often  the  most  cruel  and  the  Ver- 
sailles troops,  made  up  in  large  part  of  men 
recently  defeated  by  the  Germans,  were  glad 
to  conquer  somebody.  Over  seventeen  thou- 
sand were  shot  down  by  the  victors  in  this  last 
week.  The  French  to-day  are  horrified  and 
ashamed  at  the  cruel  massacres  of  both  sides 
and  try  to  forget  the  Commune.  Suffice  it  here 
to  say  that  the  last  serious  resistance  was  made 
in  the  cemetery  of  Pere-Lachaise,  where  those 
federes  taken  arms  in  hand  were  lined  up 


42        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

against  a  wall  and  shot.  Countless  others, 
men,  women,  and  children,  herded  together 
in  bands,  were  tried  summarily  and  either 
executed,  imprisoned,  or  deported  thousands 
of  miles  away  to  New  Caledonia,  until,  years 
after,  in  1879  and  1880,  the  pacification  of  re- 
sentments brought  amnesty  to  the  survivors.^ 
Fortunately,  M.  Thiers  had  more  inspiring 
tasks  to  deal  with  than  the  repression  of  the 
Commune.  One  was  the  liberation  of  French 
soil  from  German  occupation,  another  the 
reorganization  of  the  army.  With  wonderful 
speed  and  energy  the  enormous  indemnity 
was  raised  and  progressively  paid,  the  Ger- 
mans simultaneously  evacuating  sections  of 
French  territory.  By  March,  1873,  France 
was  in  a  position  to  agree  to  pay  the  last  por- 
tion of  the  war  tribute  the  following  Septem- 
ber (after  the  fall  of  Thiers,  as  it  proved),  thus 

*  The  fierceness  of  hatreds  engendered  by  the  Commune  may 
be  illustrated  by  the  following  untranslatable  comment  by  Alex- 
andre Dumas  fils  on  Gustave  Courbet,  a  famous  writer  and  a 
famous  painter:  "  De  quel  accouplement  fabuleux  d'une  limace  et 
d'un  paon,  de  quelles  antitheses  genesiaques,  de  quel  suintement 
sebace  pent  avoir  ete  generee  cette  chose  qu'on  appelle  M.  Gus- 
tave Courbet?  Sous  quelle  cloche,  h  I'aide  de  quel  fumier,  par 
suite  de  quelle  mixture  de  vin,  de  bidre,  de  mucus  corrosif  et 
d'oedeme  flatulent  a  pu  pousser  cette  courge  sonore  et  poilue,  ce 
ventre  esthetique,  incarnation  du  moi  imbecile  et  impuissant?" 
(Quoted  in  Fiaux's  history  of  the  Commune,  pp.  582-83.) 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THIERS     43 

ridding  its  soil  of  the  last  German  many 
months  earlier  than  had  been  provided  for 
by  the  Treaty  of  Frankfort.  The  recovery  of 
France  aroused  the  admiration  of  the  civilized 
world,  and  the  anger  of  Bismarck,  sorry  not  to 
have  bled  the  country  more.  He  viewed  also 
with  suspicion  the  organization  of  the  army 
and  the  law  of  July,  1872,  establishing  practi- 
cally universal  military  service.  He  affected 
to  see  in  it  France's  desire  for  early  revenge 
for  the  loss  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine. 

M.  Thiers,  the  great  leader,  did  not  find  his 
rule  uncontested.  Brought  into  power  as  the 
indispensable  man  to  guide  the  nation  out  of 
war,  his  conceit  was  somewhat  tickled  and  he 
wanted  to  remain  necessary.  Though  over 
seventy  he  had  shown  the  energy  and  endur- 
ance of  a  man  in  his  prime  joined  to  the  wis- 
dom and  experience  of  a  life  spent  in  public 
service  and  the  study  of  history.  Elected  by 
an  anti-Republican  Assembly  and  hunself 
originally  a  Royalist,  the  formulator  also  of 
the  Bordeaux  Compact,  he  began  to  feel, 
nevertheless,  in  all  sincerity  that  a  conserva- 
tive republic  would  be  the  best  government, 
and  his  vanity  made  him  think  himself  its  best 


44        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

leader.  This  conviction  was  intensified  for  a 
while  by  his  successful  tactics  in  threatening 
to  resign,  when  thwarted,  and  thus  bringing 
the  Assembly  to  terms.  But  he  tried  the 
scheme  once  too  often. 

The  majority  in  the  Assembly  was  not,  in 
fact,  anxious  to  give  free  rein  to  Thiers,  and 
it  had  wanted  to  avoid  committing  itself  defi- 
nitely to  a  republic.  It  wanted  also  to  insure 
its  own  continuation  as  long  as  possible,  con- 
trary to  the  wishes  of  advanced  Republicans 
like  Gambetta,  who  declared  that  the  National 
Assembly  no  longer  stood  for  the  expression 
of  the  popular  will  and  should  give  way  to  a 
real  constituent  assembly  to  organize  a  per- 
manent republic. 

The  first  endeavor  of  the  Royalists  was  to 
bring  about  a  restoration  of  the  monarchy. 
The  princes  of  the  Orleanist  branch  were  re- 
admitted to  France  and  restored  to  their  privi- 
leges. A  fusion  between  the  two  branches  of 
the  house  of  Bourbon  was  absolutely  neces- 
sary to  accomplish  anything.  The  members 
of  the  younger  or  constitutionalist  Orleans  line, 
and  notably  its  leader,  the  comte  de  Paris, 
were  disposed  to  yield  to  the  representative 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THIERS     45 

of  the  legitimist  branch,  the  comte  de  Gham- 
bord.  He  was  an  honorable  and  upright  man, 
yet  one  who  in  statesmanship  and  religion 
was  unable  to  understand  anything  since  the 
Revolution.  He  had  not  been  in  France  for 
over  forty  years,  he  was  permeated  with  a  re- 
ligious mystical  belief  not  only  in  the  divin- 
ity of  royalty,  but  in  his  own  position  as  God- 
given  (Dieudonne  was  one  of  his  names)  and 
the  only  saviour  of  France.  Moreover,  he  could 
not  forgive  his  cousins  the  fact  that  their 
great-grandfather  had  voted  for  the  execution 
of  Louis  XVI.  So  he  treated  their  advances 
haughtily,  declined  to  receive  the  comte  de 
Paris,  and  issued  a  manifesto  to  the  country 
proclaiming  his  unwillingness  to  give  up  the 
white  flag  for  the  tricolor.  Henry  V  could  not 
let  anybody  tear  from  his  hand  the  white 
standard  of  Henry  IV,  of  Francis  I,  and  of 
Jeanne  d'Arc. 

Such  medisevalism  dealt  the  monarchical 
cause  a  crushing  blow.  The  Royalists  had  al- 
ready begun  to  look  askance  at  M.  Thiers  and 
hinted  that  his  readiness  to  go  on  with  the  Re- 
public was  a  tacit  violation  of  the  Bordeaux 
Compact.   Under  the  circumstances,  however. 


46        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

his  sincerity  need  not  be  doubted  in  believing 
a  republic  the  only  outcome,  and  his  ambition 
or  vanity  may  be  excused  for  wishing  to  con- 
tinue its  leader.  By  the  Rivet-Vitet  measure 
of  August  31,  1871,  M.  Thiers,  hitherto  "chief 
of  executive  power,"  was  called  "President 
of  the  French  Republic."  He  was  to  exercise 
his  functions  so  long  as  the  Assembly  had  not 
completed  its  work  and  was  to  be  responsible 
to  the  Assembly.  Thus  the  legislative  body 
elected  for  an  emergency  was  taking  upon 
itself  constituent  authority  and  was  tending 
to  perpetuate  the  Republic  which  the  major- 
ity disliked. 

From  this  time  the  tension  grew  greater 
between  Thiers  and  the  Assembly,  which  be- 
grudged him  the  credit  for  the  negotiations 
still  proceeding,  and  already  mentioned  above, 
for  the  evacuation  of  France  by  the  Germans. 
It  thwarted  the  wish  of  the  Republicans  to 
transfer  the  seat  of  the  executive  and  legis- 
lature to  Paris.  Thiers  was,  indeed,  work- 
ing away  from  the  Bordeaux  Compact  and 
was  advocating  a  republic,  though  a  conserva- 
tive one.  This  "treachery"  the  monarchists 
could  not  forgive,  though  bye-elections  were 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THIERS     4? 

constantly  increasing  the  Republican  mem- 
bership. Thiers  did  not,  on  the  other  hand, 
welcome  the  advanced  republicanism  of  Gam- 
betta  declaring  war  on  clericalism,  and  pro- 
claiming the  advent  of  a  new  "social  stratum" 
(une  couche  sociale  nouvelle)  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  nation. 

By  the  middle  of  1872,  Thiers  was  the  open 
advocate  of  "la  Republique  conservatrice,'* 
and  this  gradual  transformation  of  a  transi- 
tional republic  into  a  permanent  one  was  what 
the  monarchists  could  not  accept.  So  they 
declared  open  war  on  M.  Thiers.  On  Novem- 
ber 29,  1872,  a  committee  of  thirty  was  ap- 
pointed at  Thiers's  instigation  to  regulate  the 
functions  of  public  authority  and  the  condi- 
tions of  ministerial  responsibility.  This  was 
inevitably  another  step  toward  the  affirmation 
of  a  permanent  republic  by  the  clearer  specifi- 
cation of  governmental  attributes.  The  major- 
ity of  the  committee  were  hostile  to  M.  Thiers 
and  were  determined  to  overthrow  him.  The 
Left  was  also  growing  dissatisfied  with  his 
opposition  to  a  dissolution.  He  found  it  in- 
creasingly difficult  to  ride  two  horses.  The 
committee  of  thirty  wished  to  prevent  Thiers 


48        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

from  exercising  pressure  on  the  Assembly  by 
intervention  in  debates  and  threats  to  resign. 
In  February  and  March,  1873,  it  proposed 
that  the  President  should  notify  the  Assembly 
by  message  of  his  intention  to  speak,  and  the 
ensuing  discussion  was  not  to  take  place  in 
his  presence.  M.  Thiers  protested  in  vain 
against  this  red  tape  (chinoiseries).  The  effect 
was  to  drive  him  more  and  more  from  the 
Assembly,  where  his  personal  influence  might 
be  felt. 

The  crisis  became  acute  when  Jules  Grevy, 
President  of  the  Assembly,  a  partisan  of  Thiers, 
resigned  his  office  after  a  disagreement  on 
a  parliamentary  matter.  His  successor,  M. 
Buffet,  at  once  rigorously  supported  the  hos- 
tile Right.  In  April  an  election  in  Paris 
brought  into  opposition  Charles  de  Remusat, 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  and  personal 
friend  of  Thiers,  and  Barodet,  candidate  of 
the  advanced  and  disaffected  Republicans. 
The  governmental  candidate  was  defeated. 
Encouraged  by  this  the  due  de  Broglie,  leader 
of  the  Right,  followed  up  the  attack,  declar- 
ing the  Government  unable  to  withstand  radi- 
calism. In  May  he  made  an  interpellation  on 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THIERS     49 

the  governmental  policy.  Thiers  invoked  his 
right  of  reply  and,  on  May  24,  gave  a  brilliant 
defence  of  his  past  actions,  formulating  his 
plans  for  the  future  organization  of  the  Re- 
public. A  resolution  was  introduced  by  M. 
Ernoul,  censuring  the  Government  and  call- 
ing for  a  rigidly  conservative  policy.  The 
government  was  put  in  the  minority  by  a  close 
vote  and  M.  Thiers  forthwith  resigned.  The 
victors  at  once  chose  as  his  successor  the  can- 
didate of  the  Rights,  the  marechal  de  Mac- 
Mahon,  due  de  Magenta,  the  defeated  general 
of  Sedan,  a  brave  and  upright  man,  but  a 
novice  in  politics  and  statecraft.  He  declared 
his  intention  of  pursuing  a  conservative  pol- 
icy and  of  re-establishing  and  maintaining 
"I'ordre  moral." 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  MARECHAL  DE 

MAC-MAHON 

May,  1873,  to  January,  1879 

"L'oRDRE  MORAL,'*  such  WQS  the  political 
catchword  of  the  new  administration.  Just 
what  it  meant  was  not  very  clear.  In  general, 
however,  it  was  obviously  intended  to  imply 
resistance  to  radicalism  (republicanism)  and 
the  maintenance  of  a  strictly  conservative 
policy,  strongly  tinged  with  clericalism.^  The 
victors  over  M.  Thiers  had  revived  their  desire 
of  a  monarchical  restoration  and  many  of 
them  hoped  that  the  marechal  de  Mac-Mahon 
would  shortly  make  way  for  the  comte  de 
Chambord.  But  though  an  anti-republican  he 
was  never  willing  to  lend  himself  to  any  really 
illegal  or  dishonest  manoeuvres,  and  his  sense 
of  honor  was  of  great  help  to  him  in  his  want 
of  political  competence.  So  he  did  not  prove 
the  pliant  tool  of  his  creators,  and  his  term 

^  Clericalism  does  not  imply  political  activity  on  the  part  of 
the  clergy  alone,  but  quite  as  much  of  laymen  strongly  in  favor 
of  the  Church. 


EDME-PATRICE-MAURICE   MACMAHOX 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  MAG-MAHON    5i 

of  office  saw  the  definite  establishment  of  the 
RepubUc. 

The  first  Cabinet  was  led  by  the  due  de 
BrogUe  who  took  the  portfoho  of  Foreign 
Affairs.  The  new  Government  was  viewed 
askance  by  the  conquerors  at  BerHn,  who  dis- 
liked such  an  orderly  transmission  of  powers 
as  an  indication  of  national  recovery  and  sta- 
bility. Bismarck  even  exacted  new  credentials 
from  the  French  Ambassador.  Meanwhile, 
the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  Beule,  proceeded 
to  consolidate  the  authority  of  the  new  Cabi- 
net by  numerous  changes  in  the  prefects  of 
the  departments,  turning  out  the  "rascals" 
of  Thiers's  administration  to  make  room  for 
appointees  more  amenable  to  new  orders. 

The  time  now  seemed  ripe  for  another  effort 
to  establish  the  monarchy  under  the  comte 
de  Chambord.  It  culminated  in  the  "monar- 
chical campaign"  of  October,  1873.  The  mo- 
narchical sympathizers  were  hand-in-glove 
with  the  Clericals  and  for  the  most  part  coin- 
cided with  them.  The  Royalists  were  inevita- 
bly clerical  if  for  no  other  reason  than  that 
monarchy  and  religion  both  seemed  to  involve 
continuity,  and  the  legitimacy  of  the  mon- 


52        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

archy  had  always  been  blessed  by  the  Church. 
The  revolutionary  Rights  of  Man  were  held 
to  be  inconsistent  with  the  traditional  Rights 
of  God  and  the  monarchy.  Moreover,  the 
founders  of  the  third  republic  had,  with  note- 
worthy exceptions  like  the  devout  Trochu, 
been  mildly  anti-clerical.  They  were  for  the 
most  part  religious  liberals  and  deists,  rarely 
atheists,  but  that  was  enough  to  array  the 
bishops,  like  monseigneur  Pie  of  Poitiers, 
against  them.  Indeed,  a  quick  religious  re- 
vival swept  over  the  land,  as  was  shown  by 
numerous  pilgrimages,  including  one  to  Paray- 
le-Monial,  home  of  the  cult  of  the  Sacred 
Heart.  France  herself  should  be  consecrated 
to  the  Sacred  Heart,  and  the  idea  was  evolved, 
afterwards  carried  out,  of  the  erection  of  the 
great  votive  basilica  of  the  Sacre  Goeur  on  the 
heights  of  Montmartre. 

The  first  step  toward  the  restoration  of 
"Henry  V"  was  to  persuade  the  comte  de 
Paris  to  make  new  efforts  for  a  fusion  of 
the  two  branches.  Swallowing  his  pride,  the 
comte  de  Paris  generously  went  to  the  home 
of  the  comte  de  Ghambord  at  Frohsdorf,  in 
Austria,  in  August,  and  paid  his  respects  to 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  MAC-MAHON    53 

him  as  head  of  the  family.  As  the  comte  de 
Chambord  had  no  children,  it  was  expected 
that  the  comte  de  Paris  would  be  his  successor. 
But  the  old  difficulty  about  the  white  flag 
cropped  up,  and  the  comte  de  Chambord 
stubbornly  refused  to  rule  over  a  country 
above  which  waved  the  revolutionary  tricolor. 
Matters  dragged  on  through  the  summer, 
during  the  parliamentary  recess,  and  the  con- 
servative leaders  were  outspoken  as  to  their 
plans  to  overthrow  the  Republic.  It  was 
hoped  that  some  compromise  might  be  reached 
by  which  could  be  reconciled,  as  to  the  flag, 
the  desires  of  the  Assembly  which  was  ex- 
pected to  recall  the  pretender  and  those  of  the 
comte  de  Chambord  who  considered  his  di- 
vinely inspired  will  superior  to  that  of  the 
representatives  of  the  people.  It  was  suggested 
that  the  question  of  the  flag  might  be  settled 
after  his  accession  to  the  throne.  The  embassy 
.to  Salzburg,  in  October,  of  M.  Chesnelong, 
an  emissary  of  a  committee  of  nine  of  the 
Royalist  leaders,  achieved  only  a  half-success, 
but  left  matters  sufTiciently  indeterminate  to 
encourage  them  in  continuing  their  plans. 
Matters  seemed  progressing  swimmingly  when, 


54        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

on  October  27,  an  unexpected  letter  from 
the  pretender  to  M.  Chesnelong  categorically 
declared  that  nothing  would  induce  him  to 
sacrifice  the  white  banner. 

The  effect  of  this  letter  was  to  make  all 
hopes  of  a  restoration  impossible.  Every- 
body knew  that  the  majority  of  Frenchmen 
would  never  give  up  their  flag  for  the  white 
one,  whether  this  were  dignified  by  the  name 
of  "standard  of  Arques  and  Ivry,"  or  whether 
one  called  it  irreverently  a  "towel,"  as  did 
Pope  Pius  IX,  impatient  at  the  obstinacy 
of  the  comte  de  Chambord.  In  the  midst  of 
the  general  confusion  only  one  thing  seemed 
feasible  if  governmental  anarchy  were  to  be 
avoided,  namely,  the  prorogation  of  Mac- 
Mahon's  authority,  as  a  rampart  against  ris- 
ing democracy  and  a  permanent  republic. 
This  condition  the  Orleanist  Right  Centre 
turned  to  their  advantage.  By  a  vote  of  No- 
vember 20,  the  executive  power  was  conferred 
for  a  definite  period  of  seven  years  on  the 
marechal  de  Mac-Mahon.  Thus  a  head  of  the 
nation  was  provided  who  might  perhaps  out- 
last the  Assembly.  The  vote  might  be  inter- 
preted either  as  the  beginning  of  a  permanent 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  MAC-MAHON    55 

republican  regime,  as  it  proved  to  be,  or  as  the 
establishment  of  a  definite  interlude  in  antici- 
pation of  a  new  attempt  to  set  up  a  mon- 
archy, this  time  to  the  advantage  of  the 
younger  branch.  Many  hoped  that  the  comte 
de  Chambord  would  soon  be  dead,  his  white 
flag  forgotten,  and  the  way  open  to  the  comte 
de  Paris.  The  Orleanists  were  pleased  by  this 
latter  idea,  the  Republicans  were  glad  to  have 
the  republican  regime  recognized  for,  at  any 
rate,  seven  years  to  come,  accompanied  by 
the  promise  of  a  constitutional  commission  of 
thirty  members.  The  Legitimists  alone  were 
disappointed,  and,  oblivious  of  the  fact  that 
the  comte  de  Chambord  had  lost  through  his 
folly,  they  were  before  long  ready  to  vent  their 
wrath  on  Mac-Mahon  and  his  adviser,  the 
due  de  Broglie,  who  was  responsible  for  the 
presidential  prorogation. 

The  pretender  had  been  completely  taken 
aback  at  the  impression  produced  by  his  let- 
ter. Convinced  of  his  divinely  inspired  omni- 
science, and  certain  that  he  was  the  foreor- 
dained ruler  of  France,  he  had  thought  that 
the  Assembly  would  give  way  on  the  question 
of  the  flag,  or  that  the  army  would  follow  him, 


56        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

or  that  Mac-Mahon  would  yield.  His  state 
coach  had  been  made  ready  and  a  military 
uniform  awaited  him  at  a  tailor's.  He  has- 
tened in  secret  to  Versailles,  where  he  re- 
mained for  a  while  in  retirement  to  watch 
events,  and  where  Mac-Mahon  refused  to  see 
him.  Then,  after  the  vote  on  the  presidency, 
he  sadly  returned  into  exile  forever. 

Never  was  a  greater  service  done  to  France 
than  when  the  comte  de  Chambord  refused  to 
give  up  his  flag.  Completely  out  of  touch  with 
the  country  through  a  life  spent  in  exile,  in- 
spired with  the  feeling  of  his  divine  rights  and 
their  superiority  to  the  will  of  democracy,  he 
would  scarcely  have  ascended  the  throne  be- 
fore some  conflict  would  have  broken  out  and 
the  history  of  France  would  have  registered 
one  revolution  more. 

The  due  de  Broglie  had  considered  it  good 
form  to  resign  after  the  vote  of  November  20, 
but  Mac-Mahon  immediately  entrusted  to 
him  the  selection  of  a  second  Cabinet.  In  this 
Cabinet  the  portfolio  of  Foreign  Affairs  was 
given  to  the  due  Decazes,  a  skilled  diplomat, 
but  the  Legitmiists  were  offended  by  some  of 
the  cabinet  changes  and  their  dislike  of  the 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  MAC-MAHON    57 

due  de  Broglie  gradually  became  more  acute. 
Finally,  after  several  months  of  parliamen- 
tary skirmishing  the  second  Broglie  Cabinet 
fell  before  a  coalition  vote  of  Republicans  and 
extreme  Royalists  with  a  few  Bonapartists, 
on  May  16,  1874.  The  Right  Centre  and  Left 
Centre  had  unsuccessfully  joined  in  support 
of  the  Cabinet.  The  nation  was  taking  an- 
other step  toward  republican  control  and  the 
overthrow  of  the  conservatives. 

From  now  on,  Mac-Mahon's  task  became 
increasingly  difficult.  After  the  split  in  the 
conservative  majority  it  was  necessary  to  rely 
on  combination  ministries,  representing  differ- 
ent sets  and  harder  to  reconcile  or  to  propitiate. 
The  result  of  Mac-Mahon's  first  efforts  was  a 
Cabinet  led  by  a  soldier.  General  de  Cissey, 
and  having  no  pronounced  political  tendencies. 

Party  differences  were  becoming  accentu- 
ated. The  downfall  of  the  Broglie  Cabinet  had 
been  largely  due  to  the  extreme  Royalists  and 
the  Orleanists  could  not  forgive  them.  The 
situation  was  made  worse  by  differences  in 
interpretation  of  the  law  of  November  20, 
establishing  the  "septennat"  of  the  marechal 
de  Mac-Mahon.     Some  of  the  Monarchists 


58        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

maintained  the  "septennat  personnel,"  namely, 
the  election  of  one  specific  person  to  hold  office 
for  seven  years,  with  the  idea  that  he  could 
withdraw  at  any  time  in  favor  of  a  king. 
Others  interpreted  the  law  as  establishing  a 
"septennat  impersonnel,"  a  definite  truce  of 
seven  years,  which  should  still  hold  even  if 
Mac-Mahon  had  to  be  replaced  before  the 
expiration  of  the  time  by  another  President. 
Then,  they  hoped,  their  enemy  Thiers  would 
be  dead.  The  Republicans  were,  of  course, 
desirous  of  making  the  impersonal  "septen- 
nat"  lead  to  a  permanent  republic,  and  de- 
clared that  Mac-Mahon  was  not  the  President 
of  a  seven  years'  republic,  but  President,  for 
seven  years,  of  the  Republic. 

In  this  state  of  affairs  the  Bonapartists  now 
became  somewhat  active  again.  Strangely 
enough,  the  disasters  of  1870  were  already 
growing  sufficiently  remote  for  some  of  the 
anti-Republicans  to  turn  again  to  the  prospect 
of  empire.  This  menace  frightened  the  mod- 
erate Royalists  into  what  they  had  kept  hesi- 
tating to  do;  that  is  to  say,  into  spurring  to 
activity  the  purposely  inactive  and  dilatory 
constitutional  commission. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  MAC-MAHON    69 

The  stumbling-block  was  the  recognition  of 
the  Republic  itself  and  the  admission  that  the 
form  of  government  existing  in  France  was  to 
be  permanent.  There  was  much  parliamentary 
skirmishing  over  various  plans,  rejected  one 
after  the  other,  inclining  in  turn  toward  the 
Republic  and  a  monarchy.  Finally,  some  of 
the  Monarchists,  discouraged  by  the  rising 
tide  of  "radicalism,"  and  frightened  lest  un- 
willingness to  accept  a  conservative  republic 
now  might  result  still  worse  for  them  in  the 
future,  rallied  in  support  of  the  motion  of  M. 
Wallon,  known  as  the  "amendement  Wallon," 
which  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  353  to  352 
(January,  1875):  "The  President  of  the  Re- 
public is  elected  by  absolute  majority  of  votes 
by  the  Senate  and  the  Chamber  of  Deputies 
united  as  a  National  Assembly.  He  is  chosen 
for  seven  years  and  is  re-eligible." 

In  this  vote  the  fateful  statement  was  made 
concerning  the  election  of  a  President  other 
than  Mac-Mahon  and  the  transmission  of 
power  in  a  republic.  The  third  Republic  re- 
ceived its  definite  consecration  by  a  majority 
of  one  vote. 

The  vote  on  the  Wallon  amendment  dealt 


6o        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

with  only  one  article  of  a  project  not  yet  voted 
as  a  whole,  but  it  was  the  crossing  of  the  Rub- 
icon. The  other  articles  were  adopted  by  in- 
creased majorities. 

The  Ministry  of  General  de  Cissey  had  al- 
ready resigned  upon  a  minor  question,  but  had 
held  over  at  the  President's  request.  Mac- 
Mahon  now  asked  the  Monarchist  M.  Buffet 
to  form  a  conservative  conciliation  Cabinet, 
which  was  made  up  ahnost  entirely  from  the 
Right  Centre  (Orleanists)  and  the  Left  Centre 
(moderate  Republicans)  and  accepted  at  first 
by  the  Republican  Left.  By  this  Cabinet  still 
one  more  step  was  taken  toward  Republican 
preponderance. 

During  the  Buffet  Ministry  three  impor- 
tant matters  occupied  public  attention.  One 
was  the  completion  of  the  new  constitution. 
A  second  was  the  creation  of  "free"  universi- 
ties, not  under  control  of  the  State.  This 
step  was  advocated  in  the  name  of  intellectual 
freedom,  but  the  whole  scheme  was  backed 
by  the  Catholics  and  merely  resulted  in  the 
creation  of  Catholic  faculties  in  several  great 
cities.  A  third  matter  was  the  intense  anxiety 
over  the  prospect  of  a  rupture  with  Germany. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  MAC-MAHON    6i 

Bismarck  was  renewing  his  policy  of  pin-pricks. 
The  French  army  had  been  strengthened  by 
a  battalion  to  every  regiment,  and  so  Bismarck 
complained  of  the  strictures  of  French  and  Bel- 
gian bishops  on  his  anti-papal  policy.  Whether 
he  only  meant  to  humiliate  France  still  more, 
or  whether  he  actually  desired  a  new  rupture 
so  as  to  crush  the  country  finally,  is  not  clear. 
At  any  rate,  with  the  aid  of  England  and  es- 
pecially of  Russia,  France  showed  that  she 
was  not  helpless,  and  Bismarck  protested  that 
he  was  absolutely  friendly. 

By  the  close  of  1875,  the  measures  consti- 
tuting the  new  Government  had  been  voted 
and,  on  December  31,  the  Assembly,  which 
had  governed  France  since  the  Franco-Prus- 
sian War,  was  dissolved  to  make  way  for  the 
new  legislature.  During  the  succeeding  elec- 
tions M.  Buffet's  Cabinet,  antagonized  by  the 
Republicans  and  rent  by  internal  dissensions, 
went  to  pieces.  M.  Buffet  personally  suffered 
disastrously  at  the  polls.  The  slate  was  clear 
for  a  totally  new  organization.  The  Assembly 
had  done  many  a  good  service,  but  its  dilatori- 
ness  in  establishing  a  permanent  government, 
its  ingratitude  to  M.  Thiers,  its  clericalism, 


62        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

and  its  stubbornness  in  trying  to  foist  a  king 
on  the  people  made  it  pass  away  unregretted 
by  a  country  which  had  far  outstripped  it  in 
republicanism. 

The  "Constitution  of  1875,"  under  which, 
with  some  modifications,  France  is  still  gov- 
erned, is  not  a  single  document  constructed 
a  priori,  like  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  It  was  partly  the  result  of  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  National  Assembly  itself,  partly 
the  result  of  compromises  and  dickerings  be- 
tween hostile  groups.  Particularly,  it  expressed 
the  jealousy  of  a  monarchical  assembly  for  a 
President  of  a  republic,  and  the  desire,  there- 
fore, to  keep  power  in  the  hands  of  its  own  leg- 
islative successor.  The  Assembly  took  it  for 
granted  that  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  would 
have  the  same  opinions  as  itself.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  political  complexion  of  the  legis- 
lature has  been  consistently  toward  radical- 
ism, and  the  result  has  hindered  a  strong  exec- 
utive and  promoted  legislative  demagogy. 

The  Constitution  of  1875  may  be  considered 
as  consisting  of  the  Constitutional  Law  of 
February  25,  relating  to  the  organization  of 
the  pubHc  powers  (President,  Senate,  Cham- 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  MAC-MAHON    63 

ber  of  Deputies,  Ministers,  etc.);  the  Con- 
stitutional Law  of  the  previous  day,  Febru- 
ary 24,  relating  to  the  organization  of  the 
Senate;  the  Constitutional  Law  of  July  16, 
on  the  relations  of  the  public  powers.  Subsi- 
diary "organic  laws"  voted  later  determined 
the  procedure  for  the  election  of  Senators  and 
Deputies.  The  vote  of  February  25  was  the 
crucial  one  in  the  definite  establishment  of 
the  Republican  regime.  The  Constitution  has 
undergone  certain  slight  modifications  since 
its  adoption. 

By  the  Constitution  of  1875  the  government 
of  the  French  Republic  was  vested  in  a  Sen- 
ate and  a  Chamber  of  Deputies.  The  Senate 
consisted  of  300  members,  of  whom  75  were 
chosen  for  life  by  the  expiring  Assembly,  their 
successors  to  be  elected  by  co-optation  in  the 
Senate  itself.  The  other  225,  chosen  for  nine 
years  and  renewable  by  thirds,  were  to  be 
elected  by  a  method  of  indirect  selection.  In 
1884,  the  choice  of  life  Senators  ceased  and 
the  seats,  as  they  fell  vacant,  have  been  dis- 
tributed among  the  Departments  of  the  coun- 
try. The  Deputies  were  elected  by  universal 
suffrage  for  a  period  of  four  years.    Unless  a 


64        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

candidate  obtained  an  absolute  majority  of 
the  votes  cast,  the  election  was  void,  and  a 
new  one  was  necessary.  Except  during  the 
period  from  1885  to  1889,  the  Deputies  have 
represented  districts  determined,  unless  for 
densely  populated  ones,  by  the  administra- 
tive arrondissements.  From  1885  to  1889,  the 
scrutin  de  liste  was  in  operation:  the  whole 
Department  voted  on  a  ticket  containing  as 
many  names  as  there  were  arrondissements. 
The  prerogatives  of  the  two  houses  were  iden- 
tical except  that  financial  measures  were  to 
originate  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  Senate  has  fallen  into  the 
background,  and  the  habit  of  considering  the 
vote  of  the  Chamber  rather  than  that  of  the 
Senate  as  important  in  a  change  of  Ministry 
has  made  it  the  true  source  of  government 
in  France.  The  two  houses  met  at  Versailles 
until  1879;  since  then  Paris  has  been  the  cap- 
ital, except  for  the  election  of  a  President. 
After  separate  decision  by  each  house  to  do 
so,  or  the  request  of  the  President,  they  could 
meet  in  joint  assembly  as  a  Constitutional 
Convention  to  revise  the  constitution. 
The  Senate  and  Chamber,  united  in  joint 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  MAC-MAHON    65 

session  as  a  National  Assembly,  were  to  choose 
a  President  for  a  definite  term  of  seven  years, 
not  to  fill  out  an  incomplete  term  vacated 
by  another  President.  The  President  could  be 
re-elected.  With  the  consent  of  the  Senate 
he  could  dissolve  the  Chamber,  but  this  re- 
striction made  the  privilege  almost  inopera- 
tive in  practice.  He  was  irresponsible,  the 
nominal  executive  and  figurehead  of  the  State, 
but  all  his  acts  had  to  be  countersigned  by 
a  responsible  Minister,  by  which  his  initiative 
was  greatly  reduced.  In  fact  the  President 
had  really  less  power  than  a  constitutional 
king. 

The  real  executive  authority  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  Cabinet,  headed  by  a  Premier  or 
President  du  conseil}  The  Ministry  was  re- 
sponsible to  the  Senate  and  Chamber  (in 
practice,  as  we  have  seen,  to  the  Chamber), 
and  was  expected  to  resign  as  a  whole  if  put 
by  a  vote  in  the  minority.  By  custom  the 
President  selects  the  Premier  from  the  major- 
ity and  the  latter  selects  his  colleagues  in  the 
Cabinet,  trying  to  make  them  representatives 

*  Before  the  Constitution  of  1875,  the  Premier  was  only  vice- 
president  du  conseil. 


66        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

of  the  wishes  of  the  Parhament.  The  French 
RepubUc  is  therefore  managed  by  a  parlia- 
mentary government. 

The  first  elections  under  the  new  constitu- 
tion resulted  very  much  as  might  be  expected : 
the  Senate  became  in  personnel  the  true  suc- 
cessor of  the  Assembly,  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  contained  most  of  the  new  men.  The 
Senate  was  conservative  and  monarchical, 
the  Chamber  was  republican.  Therefore,  the 
President  of  the  Republic  entrusted  the  for- 
mation of  a  Ministry  to  M.  Jules  Dufaure,  of 
the  Left  Centre,  the  views  of  which  group 
differed  hardly  at  all  from  those  of  the  Right 
Centre,  except  in  a  full  acceptance  of  the  new 
conditions.  Unfortunately,  M.  Dufaure  found 
it  impossible  to  ride  two  horses  at  once  and  to 
satisfy  both  the  conservative  Senate  and  the 
majority  in  the  Chamber  of  more  advanced 
Republicans  than  himself.  He  mistrusted  the 
Republican  leader  Gambetta,  though  the 
latter  was  now  far  more  moderate,  and  he 
sympathized  too  much  with  the  Clericals  to 
suit  the  new  order  of  things.  So  his  Cabinet 
resigned  (December  2,  1876),  less  than  nine 
months  after  its  appointment,  and  the  mare- 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  MAC-MAHON    67 

chal  de  Mac-Mahon  felt  it  necessary,  very 
much  against  his  will,  to  call  to  power  Jules 
Simon.  He  had  previously  tried  unsuccess- 
fully to  form  a  Cabinet  from  the  Right  Centre 
under  the  due  de  Broglie. 

The  due  de  Broglie  remained,  however,  the 
power  behind  the  throne.  The  President  was 
under  the  political  advice  of  the  conservative 
set,  whose  firm  conviction  he  shared,  that  the 
new  Republic  was  advancing  headlong  into 
irreligion.  The  course  of  political  events  now 
took  on  a  strong  religious  flavor.  Jules  Simon 
was  a  liberal,  which  was  considered  a  misfor- 
tune, though  he  announced  himself  now  as 
"deeply  republican  and  deeply  conservative.'* 
But  people  knew  his  unfriendly  relations  with 
Gambetta,  which  dated  from  1871,  when  he 
checkmated  the  dictator  at  Bordeaux.  It  was 
hoped  that  open  dissension  might  break  out 
in  the  Republican  party  which  would  justify 
measures  tending  to  a  conservative  reaction, 
and  help  tide  over  the  time  until  1880.  Then 
the  constitution  might  be  revised  at  the  ex- 
piration of  Mac-Mahon's  term  and  the  mon- 
archy perhaps  restored. 

Gambetta  was,  however,  now  a  very  differ- 


68        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

ent  man.  Discarding  his  former  unbending 
radicalism,  he  was  now  the  advocate  of  the 
*'pohtical  poUcy  of  results,"  or  opportunism,  a 
method  of  conciliation,  of  compromise,  and 
of  waiting  for  the  favorable  opportunity. 
This  was  to  be,  henceforth,  the  policy  closely 
connected  with  his  name  and  fame.  So  Jules 
Simon  soon  was  sacrificed. 

The  efforts  of  the  Clerical  party  bore  chiefly 
in  two  directions:  control  of  education  and 
advocacy  of  increased  papal  authority,  par- 
ticularly of  the  temporal  power  of  the  Pope, 
dispossessed  of  his  states  a  few  years  before 
by  the  Government  of  Victor  Emmanuel. 
This  latter  course  could  only  tend  to  embroil 
France  with  Italy.  So  convinced  was  Gam- 
betta  of  the  unwise  and  disloyal  activities 
of  the  Ultramontanes  that  on  May  4,  in  a 
speech  to  the  Chamber,  he  uttered  his  famous 
cry:  "Le  clericalisme,  voila  I'ennemi!" 

Jules  Simon  found  himself  in  a  very  difficult 
position.  Desirous  of  conciliating  Mac-Mahon 
and  his  clique,  he  adopted  a  policy  somewhat 
at  variance  with  his  former  liberal  religious 
views.  On  the  other  hand,  he  could  not  satis- 
fy the  President,  who  had  always  disliked  him, 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  MAC-MAHON    69 

or  those  who  had  determined  upon  his  over- 
throw. The  crisis  came  on  May  16,  1877, 
when  Mac-Mahon,  taking  advantage  of  some 
very  minor  measures,  wrote  a  haughty  and 
indignant  letter  to  Jules  Simon,  to  say  that 
the  Minister  no  longer  had  his  confidence. 
Jules  Simon,  backed  up  by  a  majority  in  the 
Chamber,  could  very  well  have  engaged  in  a 
constitutional  struggle  with  Mac-Mahon,  but 
he  rather  weakly  resigned  the  next  day.^  Thus 
was  opened  the  famous  conflict  known  in 
French  history,  from  its  date,  as  the  *'Seize- 
Mai." 

No  sooner  was  Jules  Simon  out  of  the  way 
than  Mac-Mahon  appointed  a  reactionary 
coalition  Ministry  of  Orleanists  and  Imperial- 
ists headed  by  the  due  de  Broglie,  and  held 
apparently  ready  in  waiting.  The  Ministers 
were  at  variance  on  many  political  questions, 
but  united  as  to  clericalism.  The  plan  was  to 
dissolve  the  Republican  Chamber  with  the 
co-operation  of  the  anti-Republican  Senate, 
in  the  hope  that  a  new  election,  under  official 

^  The  Chamber,  on  May  12,  had  expressed  itself  in  favor  of  the 
publicity  of  meetings  of  municipal  councils,  during  the  absence 
of  the  Minister  of  the  Interior.  On  May  i5,  it  had  passed  the 
second  reading  of  a  law,  opposed  by  Jules  Simon,  on  the  freedom 
of  the  press. 


70        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

pressure,  would  result  in  a  monarchical  lower 
house  also.  The  Chamber  of  Deputies  was 
therefore  prorogued  until  June  16  and  then 
dissolved.  At  the  meeting  of  May  18,  the 
Republicans  presented  a  solid  front  of  363  in 
their  protest  against  the  high-handed  action 
of  the  marechal  de  Mac-Mahon. 

The  new  Cabinet  began  by  a  wholesale  re- 
vocation of  administrative  officials  throughout 
the  country,  and  spent  the  summer  in  unblush- 
ing advocacy  of  its  candidates.  Those  favored 
by  the  Government  were  so  indicated  and 
their  campaign  manifestoes  were  printed  on 
official  white  paper. ^  The  Republicans  united 
their  forces  to  support  the  re-election  of  the 
363  and  gave  charge  of  their  campaign  to  a 
committee  of  eighteen  under  the  inspiring 
leadership  of  Gambetta.  In  a  great  speech  at 
Lille,  Gambetta  declared  that  the  President 
would  have  to  "give  in  or  give  up"(5e  sou- 
metire  ou  se  demettre),  for  which  crime  of  lese- 
majeste  he  was  condemned  by  default  to  fine 
and  imprisonment.  In  September,  Thiers, 
the  great  leader  of  the  early  Republic,  died, 
and  his  funeral  was  made  the   occasion  of 

1  In  France  only  official  posters  may  be  printed  on  white  paper. 


LfeON   GAMBETTA 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  MAC-MAHON    71 

a  great  manifestation  of  Republican  unity. 
Finally,  in  spite  of  governmental  pressure  and 
the  pulpit  exhortations  of  the  clergy,  the  elec- 
tions in  October  resulted  in  a  new  Republican 
Chamber.  The  reactionary  Cabinet  was  face 
to  face  with  as  firm  an  opposition  as  before. 

The  due  de  Broglie,  in  view  of  this  crushing 
defeat,  was  ready  to  withdraw,  and  Mac- 
Mahon,  after  some  hesitation,  accepted  his 
resignation.  Mac-Mahon's  own  fighting  blood 
was  up,  however,  and  he  tried  the  experiment 
of  an  extra-parliamentary  Ministry  led  by 
General  de  Rochebouet,  the  members  of 
which  were  conservatives  without  seats  in 
Parliament.  But  the  Chamber  refused  to  enter 
into  relations  with  it,  and  as  the  budget  was 
pressing  and  the  Senate  was  not  disposed  to 
support  a  second  dissolution,  Mac-Mahon 
had  to  submit  and  the  Rochebouet  Cabinet 
withdrew. 

Thus  ended  Mac-Mahon's  unsuccessful 
attempt  to  exert  his  personal  power.  The 
Seize-Mai  has  sometimes  been  likened  to  an 
abortive  coup  d'etat.  The  parallel  is  hardly 
justifiable.  Mac-Mahon  would  have  welcomed 
a  ret^irn  of  the  monarchy  at  the  end  of  his  term 


72        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

of  office,  but  he  intended  to  remain  faithful 
to  the  constitution,  however  much  he  might 
strain  it  or  interpret  it  under  the  advice  of  his 
Clerical  managers,  and  though  he  might  have 
been  willing  to  use  troops  to  enforce  his  wishes. 
One  unfortunate  result  ensued:  the  crisis  left 
the  Presidency  still  more  weak.  Any  repeti- 
tion of  Mac-Mahon's  experiment  of  dissolv- 
ing the  Chamber  would  revive  accusations 
against  one  of  his  successors  of  attempting  a 
coup  d'etat.  There  have  been  times  when  the 
country  would  have  welcomed  the  dissolu- 
tion by  a  strong  President  of  an  incompe- 
tent Chamber.  Unfortunately,  Mac-Mahon 
stood  for  the  reactionaries  against  the  Repub- 
lic. His  course  of  action  would  be  a  dangerous 
precedent. 

The  new  order  of  things  was  marked  by  the 
advent  of  another  Dufaure  Ministry,  very 
moderate  in  tendency,  but  acceptable  to  the 
majority.  Most  of  the  high-handed  doings 
of  the  Broglie  Cabinet  were  revoked,  much 
to  the  disgust  of  Mac-Mahon,  who  frequently 
lost  his  temper  when  obliged  to  sign  documents 
of  which  he  disapproved.  Finally,  in  Janu- 
ary, 1879,  in  a  controversy  with  his  Cabinet 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  MAC-MAHON    78 

over  some  military  transfers,  Mac-Mahon  re- 
signed, over  a  year  before  the  expiration  of 
his  term  of  ofTice.  Moreover,  at  the  recent 
elections  to  the  Senate  the  Republicans  had 
obtained  control  of  even  that  body.  Thus  he 
was  alone,  with  both  houses  and  the  Minis- 
try against  him. 

In  spite  of  the  unfortunate  endless  internal 
dissensions,  France  made  great  strides  in 
national  recovery  during  the  Presidency  of 
Mac-Mahon.  His  rank  and  military  title  gave 
prestige  to  the  Republic  in  presence  of  the  dip- 
lomats of  European  monarchies,  the  German 
crisis  of  1875  showed  that  Bismarck  was  not 
to  have  a  free  hand  in  crushing  France,  the 
participation  of  France  in  the  Congress  of 
Berlin  enabled  the  country  to  take  a  place 
again  among  the  European  Powers.  Finally, 
the  International  Exhibition  of  1878  was  an 
invitation  to  the  world  to  witness  the  recovery 
of  France  from  her  disasters  and  to  testify  to 
her  right  to  lead  again  in  art  and  industry. 

The  Presidency  of  Mac-Mahon  shows  the 
desperate  efforts  of  the  Monarchists  to  over- 
throw the  Republic,  and  then  to  control  it 
in  view  of  an  ultimate  Restoration,  either 


74        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

by  obstructing  the  vote  of  a  constitution  or 
by  hindering  its  operation.  Throughout,  the 
Monarchists  and  the  Clericals  work  together 
or  are  identical.  The  end  of  his  term  of  office 
found  the  whole  Government  in  the  hands  of 
the  Republicans. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  JULES  GREW 
January,  1879,  to  December,  1887 

The  resignation  of  the  marechal  de  Mac- 
Mahon  was  followed  by  the  immediate  gath- 
ering, in  accordance  with  the  constitution,  of 
the  National  Assembly,  which  chose  as  Presi- 
dent for  seven  years  Jules  Grevy.  The  new 
chief  magistrate,  elected  without  a  competitor, 
was  already  seventy-two,  and  had  in  his  long 
career  won  the  reputation  of  a  dignified  and 
sound  statesman,  in  whose  hands  public 
affairs  might  be  entrusted  with  absolute 
safety.  He  represented  a  step  beyond  the 
military  and  aristocratic  regime  which  had 
preceded  him.  The  embodiment  of  the  old 
bourgeoisie,  he  had,  along  with  its  qualities, 
some  of  its  defects.  Eminently  cautious,  his 
statesmanship  had  been  at  times  a  non-com- 
mittal reserve  more  than  constructive  genius. 
His  parsimony  soon  caused  people  to  accuse 
him  of  unduly  saving  his  salary  and  state  al- 
lowances, while  his  personal  dislikes  led  him 


76        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

to  err  grievously  in  his  choice  of  advisers,  or 
rather  in  his  elimination  of  Gambetta,  to  whom 
circumstances  now  pointed. 

Jules  Grevy  hated  Gambetta,  undeniably 
the  leading  figure  in  the  Republican  party 
since  the  death  of  Thiers,  and  neglected  to 
entrust  to  him  the  formation  of  a  Cabinet. 
Thiers  himself  had  shown  greater  wisdom.  He, 
too,  had  disliked  the  raging  and  apparently 
futile  volubility  of  the  young  tribune  during 
the  Franco-Prussian  War,  but  Thiers  got  over 
calling  Gambetta  a  "fou  furieux."  On  the 
contrary,  just  after  the  Seize-Mai  and  before 
his  own  death,  when  Thiers  was  expecting  to 
return  to  the  Presidency  as  successor  to  a  dis- 
credited Mac-Mahon,  he  had  intended  to  make 
Gambetta  the  head  of  his  Cabinet.  For  Gam- 
betta with  maturity  had  become  more  mod- 
erate. Instead  of  drastic  political  remedies 
he  was  gradually  evolving,  as  already  stated, 
the  policy  of  "Opportunism"  so  closely  linked 
with  his  name,  the  method  of  gradual  advance 
by  concessions  and  compromises,  by  taking  ad- 
vantage of  occasions  and  making  one's  general 
policy  conform  with  opportunity. 

If  Gambetta,  as  leader  of  the  majority  group 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GREVY      77 

in  the  Republican  party,  which  had  evicted 
Mac-Mahon,  had  become  Prime  Minister,  it 
is  conceded  that  the  precedent  would  have 
been  set  by  the  new  administration  for  parlia- 
mentary government  with  a  true  party  leader- 
ship, as  in  Great  Britain.  Instead,  Grevy  en- 
trusted the  task  of  forming  a  Ministry  to  an 
upright' but  colorless  leader  named  Wadding- 
ton,  at  the  head  of  a  composite  Cabinet,  more 
moderate  in  policy  than  Gambetta,  who  became 
presiding  officer  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies. 
The  consequence  was  that,  after  lasting  less 
than  a  year,  it  gave  way  to  another  Cabinet 
led  by  the  great  political  trimmer  Freycinet,^ 
until  in  due  time  it  was  in  turn  succeeded  by 
the  Ministry  of  Jules  Ferry  in  September,  1880. 
It  must  not  be  inferred  that  nothing  was 
accomplished  by  the  Waddington  and  Frey- 
cinet  Ministries.  Indeed,  Jules  Ferry,  the 
chief  Republican  next  to  Gambetta,  was  him- 
self a  member  of  these  two  Cabinets  before 
leading  his  own. 

*  Gambetta's  former  assistant  during  the  national  defence 
after  the  first  disasters;  a  brilliant  organizer,  but  in  general  pol- 
icy a  nolonte,  to  use  the  term  Gambetta  coined  about  him  on  the 
basis  of  the  word  volonle.  As  Minister  of  Public  Works  he  ini- 
tiated at  this  period  great  improvements  in  the  interned  develop- 
ment of  France,  especially  in  the  railways. 


78        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

The  lining-up  of  Republican  groups,  as 
opposed  to  the  Monarchists,  under  the  new 
administration  was:  the  Left  Centre,  com- 
posed as  in  the  past  of  ultra-conservative 
Republicans,  constantly  diminishing  numeri- 
cally; the  Republican  Left,  which  followed 
Jules  Ferry;  the  Republican  Union  of  Gam- 
betta;  and,  finally,  the  radical  Extreme  Left, 
which  had  taken  for  itself  many  of  the  ad- 
vanced measures  advocated  by  Gambetta 
when  he  had  been  a  radical.  One  of  its  leaders 
was  Georges  Clemenceau.  Between  the  two 
large  groups  of  Ferry  and  Gambetta  there  was 
little  difference  in  ideals,  but  Gambetta  was 
now  the  Opportunist  and  Ferry  made  his  own 
Gambetta's  old  battle-cry  against  clericalism. 

The  Chamber  elected  after  the  Seize-Mai 
was  by  reaction  markedly  anti-Clerical,  and 
the  Waddington  Cabinet,  to  begin  with,  con- 
tained three  Protestants  and  a  freethinker. 
Obviously  steps  would  soon  be  taken  to  defeat 
the  "enemy."  In  this  movement  Jules  Ferry 
was  from  the  beginning  a  leader,  by  direct 
action  as  well  as  by  the  educational  reforms 
which  he  carried  out  as  Minister  of  Public 
Instruction.   Jules  Ferry  became,  more  than 


JULES   FERRY 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GREVY      79 

Gambetta,  the  great  bugbear  of  the  Clericals 
and  the  author  of  the  "lois  scelerates." 

During  the  Waddington  Ministry  Jules 
Ferry  began  his  efforts  for  the  reorganization 
of  superior  instruction,  and  among  his  meas- 
ures carried  through  the  Chamber  of  Deputies 
the  notorious  "Article  7"  indirectly  aimed  at 
Jesuit  influence  in  secondary  teaching  as  well: 
*'No  person  can  direct  any  public  or  private 
establishment  whatsoever  or  teach  therein  if 
he  belongs  to  an  unauthorized  order."  The 
Jesuits  had  at  that  time  no  legal  footing  in 
France,  but  were  openly  tolerated.  The  Sen- 
ate rejected  this  article  under  the  Freycinet 
Ministry  and  the  law  was  finally  adopted 
thus  apparently  weakened.  But  Jules  Ferry, 
nothing  daunted,  immediately  put  into  opera- 
tion the  no  less  notorious  decrees  of  March, 
1880,  reviving  older  laws  going  back  even  to 
1762,  which  had  long  since  fallen  into  disuse. 
By  these  decrees  the  Jesuit  establishments 
were  to  be  closed  and  the  members  dispersed 
within  three  months.  Moreover,  every  un- 
authorized order  was,  under  penalty  of  ex- 
pulsion, to  apply  for  authorization  within  a 
like  limit  of  time.  The  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits 


8o        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

was  carried  out  with  a  certain  spectacular  dis- 
play of  passive  resistance  on  the  part  of  those 
evicted.  Later  in  the  year  similar  steps  were 
taken  against  many  other  organizations. 

It  is  evident  from  the  above  that  the  promo- 
tion of  educational  reform  under  Republican 
control  was  definitely  connected  with  meas- 
ures directed  against  clerical  domination.  The 
French  Catholic  Church,  on  its  part,  treated 
every  attempt  toward  laicization  as  a  form  of 
persecution.  But  Jules  Ferry  unhesitatingly 
extended  his  policy  when  he  became  Prime 
Minister.  His  measures  were  genuinely  neu- 
tral, but  his  reputation  as  a  Voltairian  free- 
thinker and  a  freemason  inevitably  afforded 
his  opponents  an  excuse  for  their  charges. 

Jules  Ferry's  reforms  in  education,  extend- 
ing over  several  Cabinet  periods  as  late  as 
1882,  included  secondary  education  for  girls, 
and  free,  obligatory,  lay,  primary  instruction. 
To  Americans  accustomed  to  such  methods  of 
education  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  the  strug- 
gles of  Jules  Ferry  and  his  assistant  on  the 
floor  of  the  House,  Paul  Bert,  in  carrying 
through  these  measures  for  the  training  of  the 
democracy. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GREVY      8i 

In  foreign  affairs  Jules  Ferry  inaugurated  a 
more  active  policy  symptomatic  of  the  return 
of  France  to  participation  in  international 
matters.  At  the  Congress  of  Berlin,  France 
had  avoided  entanglements,  but,  even  at  that 
early  period,  Lord  Salisbury  had  hinted  to 
M.  Waddington,  present  as  French  delegate, 
that  no  interference  would  be  made  by  Eng- 
land, were  France  to  advance  claims  in  Tunis. 
This  suggestion  came,  perhaps,  originally  from 
Bismarck,  who  was  not  averse  to  embroiling 
France  with  Italy.  That  country  longed  for 
Tunis  so  conveniently  situated  near  Sicily. 
England,  moreover,  was  probably  not  desirous 
of  seeing  the  Italians  thus  strategically  en- 
sconced in  the  Mediterranean. 

In  1881,  financial  manoeuvres  and  the  plun- 
dering expeditions  into  Algeria  of  border 
tribes  called  Kroumirs  afforded  a  pretext  for 
intervention,  to  the  indignation  of  Italy,  which 
was  thus  more  than  ever  inclined  to  seek  al- 
liances against  France,  even  with  Germany. 
Here,  indeed,  was  the  germ  of  the  Triple 
Alliance.  An  easy  advance  to  Tunis  forced  the 
Bey  to  accept  a  French  protectorate  by  the 
Treaty  of  the  Bardo  on  May  12, 1881.  Later  in 


82        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

the  year  the  situation  became  rather  serious, 
and  new  and  rather  costly  miUtary  operations 
became  necessary,  including  the  occupation 
of  Sfax,  Gabes,  and  Kairouan. 

Thus  France  came  into  possession  of  valu- 
able territories,  but  at  the  cost  of  Italian  in- 
dignation. Moreover,  Jules  Ferry,  who  was 
always  one  of  the  most  hated  of  party  leaders 
in  his  own  country,  reaped  no  advantage  to 
himself.  His  enemies  affected  to  believe  that 
the  whole  Tunisian  war  was  a  game  of  capi- 
talists, or  was  planned  for  effect  upon  elections 
to  the  new  Chamber.  The  boulevards  refused 
to  take  the  Kroumirs  seriously  and  joked  about 
"Cherchez  le  Kroumir."  Finally,  on  Novem- 
ber 9,  1881,  the  personal  intervention  of  Gam- 
betta  before  the  newly  elected  Chamber  of 
Deputies  saved  the  Cabinet  on  a  vote  of  con- 
fidence. Jules  Ferry  none  the  less  determined 
to  resign,  and  Gambetta,  in  spite  of  Grevy's 
aversion,  was  the  inevitable  man  for  the  for- 
mation of  a  new  Cabinet. 

Gambetta's  great  opportunity  had  come 
too  late  to  be  effective.  The  undoubted  leader 
of  the  Republic,  he  had  grown  in  statesman- 
ship since  his  early  days,  but  was  still  hated 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GREVY      83 

by  men  like  Grevy  who  could  not  get  over  their 
old  prejudices.  Then  the  advanced  radicals, 
or  intransigeants,  thought  him  a  traitor  to  his 
old  platforms  or  programmes.^  They  blamed 
his  Opportunism  and  said  that  he  wanted 
power  without  responsibility.  Gambetta's  ene- 
mies, whether  the  due  de  Broglie  or  Clemen- 
ceau,  talked  of  his  secret  influence  (pouvoir 
occulie),  and  accused  him  of  aspiring  to  a  dic- 
tatorship, in  fact  if  not  in  name.  Their  sus- 
picions were  somewhat  deepened  by  Gam- 
betta's ardent  advocacy  of  the  scrutin  de  liste 
instead  of  the  existing  scrutin  d^arrondisse- 
ment.^ 

It  was  asserted  that  Gambetta  wanted  to 
diminish  the  independence  of  local  represen- 
tation and  marshal  behind  himself  a  subser- 
vient majority.  To  Gambetta  the  scrutin  de 
liste  was  the  truly  republican  form  of  repre- 
sentation, the  one  existing  under  the  Na- 

^  Especially  as  to  the  unlimited  revision  of  the  constitution  and 
the  immediate  separation  of  Church  and  State. 

2  Gambetta's  contempt  for  the  parochialism  of  the  elections 
by  district  was  great.  He  felt  that  departmental  tickets  would 
favor  the  choice  of  better  men.  One  must  remember  how  large  a 
proportion  of  the  French  Deputies  are  physicians  to  appreciate 
the  scorn  of  Gambetta's  saying  that  the  scrutin  d'arrondissement 
produced  a  lot  of  sous-veterinaires,  that  is,  men  who  were  not  even 
decent  "horse-doctors." 


84        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

tional  Assembly  and  abolished  by  the  reac- 
tionaries under  the  new  constitution. 

Thus,  Gambetta  had  against  him,  during 
the  campaign  for  renewal  of  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  in  the  summer  of  1881,  not  only  the 
anti-Republicans  but  also  timid  liberals  like 
Jules  Simon,  the  influence  of  President  Grevy, 
and  the  intransigeants.  The  Senate  was  averse 
to  the  scrutin  de  liste  and  rejected,  in  the  spring 
of  1881,  the  measure  which  Gambetta  carried 
through  the  Chamber.  Gambetta,  formerly 
the  idol  of  the  working  classes  of  Paris,  met 
with  opposition,  was  hooted  in  one  of  his  own 
political  rallies,  and  was  re-elected  on  the  first 
ballot  in  one  only  of  the  two  districts  in  which 
he  was  a  candidate. 

The  elections  of  the  Chamber  of  1881  re- 
sulted in  a  strongly  Republican  body,  in  which, 
however,  the  majority  subdivided  into  groups. 
Gambetta's  "Union  republicaine"  was  the 
most  numerous,  followed  by  Ferry's  ''Gauche 
republicaine,"  and  the  extremists.  A  certain 
fraction  of  Gambetta's  group,  including  Henri 
Brisson  and  Charles  Floquet,  also  tended  to 
stick  together.  They  were  the  germ  of  what 
became  in  time  the  great  Radical  party. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GREVY      85 

It  had  been  hoped  that  Gambetta  would 
bring  into  his  Cabinet  all  the  other  leaders  of 
his  party,  and  at  last  form  a  great  governing 
ministry.  But  men  like  Leon  Say  and  Frey- 
cinet  refused  their  collaboration  because  of 
divergence  of  views  or  personal  pride.  Gam- 
betta then  decided  to  pick  his  collaborators 
from  his  immediate  friends  and  partisans, 
some  of  whom  had  yet  a  reputation  to  make. 
The  anticipated  "Great  Ministry"  turned 
out  to  be,  its  opponents  said,  a  "ministere 
de  commis,"  a  cabinet  of  clerks.  The  fact  that 
it  contained  men  like  Waldeck-Rousseau, 
Raynal,  and  Rouvier  showed,  however,  that 
Gambetta  could  discover  ability  in  others. 
But  it  was  declared  that  the  "dictator"  was 
marshalling  his  henchmen.  The  extremists, 
especially,  were  furious  because  Gambetta 
also  magnanimously  gave  important  posts  to 
non-Republicans  like  General  de  Miribel  and 
the  journalist  J.-J.  Weiss. 

The  "Great  Ministry"  remained  in  office 
two  months  and  a  half  and  came  to  grief  on 
the  proposed  revision  of  the  constitution,  in 
which  Gambetta  wished  to  incorporate  the 
scrutin  de  liste.    In  January,  1882,  it  had  to 


86        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPURLIC 

resign  and  Gambetta  died  on  the  last  day  of 
the  same  year.  Thus,  the  third  Republic  lost 
its  leading  statesman  since  the  death  of  Thiers. 

The  year  1882  was  filled  by  the  two  ineffec- 
tive Cabinets  of  Freycinet  (second  time)  and 
of  Duclerc.  Under  the  former,  France  made 
the  mistake,  injurious  to  her  interests  and 
prestige,  of  withdrawing  from  the  Egyptian 
condominium  with  Great  Britain  and  allowing 
the  latter  country  free  play  for  the  conquest 
and  occupation  of  Egypt.  Thus  the  fruits  of 
De  Lesseps'  piercing  of  the  Isthmus  of  Suez 
went  definitely  to  England.  The  death  of 
Gambetta  under  the  Duclerc-Fallieres  Min- 
istry ^  seemed  to  reawaken  the  hopes  of  the 
anti-Republicans,  and  Jerome  Napoleon,  chief 
Bonapartist  pretender  since  the  decease  of  the 
Prince  Imperial,  issued  a  manifesto  against 
the  Republic.  Parliament  fell  into  a  ludicrous 
panic,  various  contradictory  measures  were 
proposed,  and  in  the  general  confusion  the 
Cabinet  fell  after  an  adverse  vote. 

In  this  contingency  President  Gre"\v  did 
what  he  should  have  done  before,  and  called 
to  office  the  leading  statesman.  This  was  now 

^  M.  Fallieres  took  the  place  of  Duclerc  as  President  of  the 
Council  during  the  last  days. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GREIVY      87 

Jules  Ferry.  At  last  France  had  an  adminis- 
tration which  lasted  a  little  over  two  years. 
But  Ferry  was  still  intensely  unpopular.  He 
had  become  the  successor  of  Gambetta  and 
the  exponent  of  the  policy  of  Opportunism, 
which  he  tried  to  carry  out  with  even  more 
constructive  statesmanship.  But  he  was  to- 
tally wanting  in  Gambetta's  magnetism,  and 
his  domineering  ways  made  him  hated  the 
more.  The  Clericals  opposed  him  as  the  ''per- 
secutor" of  the  Catholic  religion,  and  the  Rad- 
icals thought  he  did  not  go  far  enough  in  his 
hostility  to  the  Church.  For  Jules  Ferry  saw 
that  the  times  were  not  ripe  for  disestablish- 
ment, and  that  the  system  of  the  Concordat,  in 
vogue  since  Napoleon  I,  really  gave  the  State 
more  control  over  the  Clergy  than  it  would  have 
in  case  of  separation.  The  State  would  lose 
its  power  in  appointments  and  salaries.  Jules 
Ferry  knew  that  the  Church  could  be  useful 
to  him,  and  the  politic  Leo  XIII,  very  differ- 
ent from  Pius  IX,  was  ready  to  meet  him  part 
way,  though  the  Pope  himself  had  to  humor 
to  a  certain  extent  the  hostility  to  the  Repub- 
lic of  the  French  Monarchists  and  Clericals. 
Jules  Ferry,  like  Gambetta,  also  had  to  put 


88        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

up  with  the  veiled  hostihty  of  President  Grevy, 
working  in  ParUament  through  the  intrigues 
of  his  son-in-law  Wilson.  Moreover,  Ferry 
was  made  to  bear  the  odium  for  a  long  period 
of  financial  depression,  which  had  lasted 
since  1882,  starting  with  the  sensational  fail- 
ure (krach)  of  a  large  bank,  the  Union  generale. 
So  his  career  was  made  a  torture  and  he  was 
vilified  perhaps  more  than  any  man  of  the 
third  Republic. 

The  extremists  had  in  time  another  griev- 
ance against  Jules  Ferry  in  his  opposition  to 
a  radical  revision  of  the  constitution.  The 
enemies  of  the  Republic  still  feigned  to  believe, 
especially  when  the  death  of  the  comte  de 
Chambord  in  1883  had  fused  the  Legitimists 
and  Orleanists,  that  an  integral  revision  would 
pave  the  way  for  a  monarchical  restoration. 
The  Radicals  demanded  the  suppression  of 
the  power  of  the  Senate,  whose  consent  was 
necessary  to  summon  a  constitutional  conven- 
tion. A  Congress  was  summoned  in  1884  at 
which  the  very  limited  programme  of  the 
Ministry  was  put  through.  The  changes 
merely  eliminated  from  the  constitution  the 
prescriptions  for  senatorial  elections.    After 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GREVY     89 

this,  by  an  ordinary  statute,  life-senatorships 
were  abolished  for  the  future,  and  some 
changes  were  made  in  the  choice  of  senatorial 
electors. 

Jules  Ferry  was  what  would  to-day  be  called 
an  imperialist.  In  this  he  may  have  been  un- 
wise, for  the  French,  though  intrepid  explorers, 
do  not  care  to  settle  permanently  far  from  the 
motherland.  The  north  coast  of  Africa  might 
have  been  a  sufficient  field  for  enterprise.  But 
Jules  Ferry  thought  that  the  Triple  Alliance 
of  Germany,  Austria,  and  Italy,  formed  in 
1882,  was  going  to  isolate  France  permanently 
in  Europe.  So  she  was  to  regain  her  prestige 
by  territorial  annexations  in  the  Sudan,  the 
Congo,  Madagascar,  Annam,  and  Tonkin. 

The  French  had  some  nominal  rights  on 
Tonkin  since  1874,  and  disturbances  there 
had  caused  a  revival  of  activities.  When  the 
French  officer  Riviere  was  killed  in  an  ambus- 
cade in  May,  1883,  Jules  Ferry  sent  heavy 
reinforcements  and  forced  the  King  of  Annam 
to  acknowledge  a  French  protectorate.  This 
stirred  up  the  Chinese,  who  also  claimed  An- 
nam, and  who  caused  the  invasion  of  Tonkin 
by  guerillas  supported  by  their  own  troops. 


90        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

After  various  operations  in  Tonkin  the  Treaty 
of  Tien-tsin  was  signed  with  China  in  May, 
1884,  by  which  China  made  the  concessions 
called  for  by  the  French.  Within  a  month 
Chinese  troops  ambuscaded  a  French  column 
at  Bac-Le  and  the  Government  decided  on 
a  punitive  expedition.  Thus  France  was  en- 
gaged in  troublesome  warfare  with  China, 
without  direct  parliamentary  authorization. 
The  bombardment  of  Foo-chow,  the  attack  on 
the  island  of  Formosa,  and  the  blockade  of  the 
coast  dragged  along  unsatisfactorily  through 
1884  and  1885. 

While  Jules  Ferry  in  the  spring  of  1885  was 
actually  negotiating  a  final  peace  with  China 
on  terms  satisfactory  to  the  French,  the  ces- 
sion of  Annam  and  Tonkin  with  a  commercial 
treaty,  and  while  he  was  categorically  affirm- 
ing in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  the  success  of 
military  operations  in  Tonkin,  a  sudden  dis- 
patch from  the  East  threw  everything  into  a 
turmoil.  General  Briere  de  ITsle  telegraphed 
from  Tonkin  that  the  French  had  been  disas- 
trously defeated  at  Lang-son  and  General  de 
Negrier  severely  wounded.  The  news  proved 
to  be  a  grievous  exaggeration  which  was  con- 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GREVY     91 

tradicted  by  a  later  dispatch  some  hours  after, 
but  the  damage  was  done.  On  March  30,  in 
the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  Jules  Ferry  was 
insulted  and  abused  by  the  leaders  of  a  coali- 
tion of  anti-Republicans  and  Radicals.  The 
"Tonkinois,"  as  his  vilifiers  called  him,  dis- 
gusted and  discouraged,  made  little  attempt 
to  defend  himself,  and  his  Cabinet  fell  by  a 
vote  of  306  to  149.  On  April  4,  the  prelimi- 
naries of  a  victorious  treaty  of  peace  were 
signed  with  China. 

The  fall  of  Jules  Ferry  was  a  severe  blow  to 
efficient  government.  It  marked  the  end,  for  a 
long  time,  of  any  effort  to  construct  satisfac- 
tory united  Cabinets  led  by  a  strong  man.  It 
set  a  precedent  for  innumerable  short-lived 
Ministries  built  on  the  treacherous  sands  of 
shifting  groups.  It  paved  the  way  for  a  deteri- 
oration in  parliamentary  management.  It  ac- 
centuated the  bitter  hatred  now  existing  be- 
tween the  Union  des  gauches,  as  the  united 
Gambetta  and  Ferry  Opportunist  groups 
called  themselves,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
Radicals  and  the  Extreme  Left  on  the  other. 
The  Radicals,  in  particular,  were  influential, 
and  one  of  their  more  moderate  members, 


92        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

Henri  Brisson,  became  the  head  of  the  next 
Cabinet.  Brisson's  name  testified  to  an  ad- 
vance toward  radicaUsm,  but  the  Cabinet  con- 
tained all  sorts  of  moderate  and  nondescript 
elements,  dubbed  a  "concentration"  Cabinet. 
Its  chief  function  was  to  tide  over  the  elec- 
tions of  1885,  for  a  new  Chamber  of  Deputies. 
In  anticipation  of  this  election  Gambetta's 
long-desired  scrutin  de  liste  had  been  rather 
unexpectedly  voted. 

The  workings  of  the  new  method  of  voting 
were  less  satisfactory  than  had  been  antici- 
pated. Republican  dissensions  and  a  greater 
union  of  the  opposition  caused  a  tremendous 
reactionary  landslide  on  the  first  ballot.  This 
was  greatly  reduced  on  the  second  ballot,  so 
that  the  Republicans  emerged  with  a  large 
though  diminished  majority.  But  the  old  Left 
Centre  had  practically  disappeared  and  the 
Radicals  were  vastly  more  numerous.  The 
great  divisions  were  now  the  Right,  the  mod- 
erate Union  des  gauches,  the  Radicals,  and 
the  revolutionary  Extreme  Left.  The  Brisson 
Cabinet  was  blamed  for  not  "working"  the 
elections  more  successfully  and  it  resigned  at 
the  time  of  President  Grevy's  re-election.   He 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GREVY     gS 

had  reached  the  end  of  his'  seven  years'  term 
and  was  chosen  again  on  December  28,  1885. 
He  was  to  have  troublesome  experiences  during 
the  short  time  he  remained  in  the  Presidency. 

The  Freycinet,  Goblet,  and  Rouvier  Cabi- 
nets, which  fill  the  rest  of  Grevy's  Presidency, 
were  largely  engrossed  with  a  new  danger 
in  the  person  of  General  Boulanger.  He  first 
appeared  in  a  prominent  position  as  Minister 
of  War  in  the  Freycinet  Cabinet.  A  young, 
brilliant,  and  popular  though  unprincipled 
officer,  he  soon  devoted  himself  to  demagogy 
and  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  jingoes  who 
called  Ferry  the  slave  of  Bismarck.  The  ex- 
peditions of  Tunis  and  Tonkin  had,  moreover, 
thrown  a  glamour  over  the  flag  and  the  army. 

Boulanger  began  at  once  to  play  politics  and 
catered  to  the  advanced  parties,  who  adopted 
him  as  their  own.  He  backed  up  the  spectacular 
expulsion  of  the  princes,  which,  as  an  answer 
to  the  monarchical  progress,  drove  from 
France  the  heads  of  formerly  reigning  families 
and  their  direct  heirs  in  line  of  primogeniture, 
and  carried  out  their  radiation  from  the  army. 
The  populace  cheered  the  gallant  general  on 
his  black  horse,  and  when  Bismarck  com- 


gH        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

plained  that  he  was  a  menace  to  the  peace  of 
Europe  Boulanger's  fortune  seemed  made. 
At  a  certain  moment  France  and  Germany 
were  on  the  brink  of  war  in  the  so-called 
Schnaebele  affair.^  So,  when  Boulanger  was 
left  out  of  the  Rouvier  Cabinet  combination  in 
May,  1887,  as  dangerous,  he  played  more  than 
ever  to  the  gallery  as  the  persecuted  saviour  of 
France  and,  on  being  sent  to  take  command 
of  an  army  corps  in  the  provinces  at  Clermont- 
Ferrand,  he  was  escorted  to  the  train  by  thou- 
sands of  enthusiastic  manifestants. 

Meanwhile,  President  Grevy  was  nearing  a 
disaster.  In  October,  1887,  General  CalTarel, 
an  important  member  of  the  General  Staff,  was 
arrested  for  participating  in  the  sale  of  deco- 
rations. When  Boulanger  declared  that  the 
arrest  of  Caffarel  was  an  indirect  assault  on 
himself,  originally  responsible  for  Caffarel's 
appointment  to  the  General  Staff,  the  affair 
got  greater  notoriety. .  The  scandal  assumed 
national  proportions  when  it  was  found  to 
involve  the  President's  own  son-in-law  Daniel 
Wilson,  well  known  to  be  a  shady  and  tricky 

*  The  French  claimed  that  a  government  official  had  been  lured 
over  the  frontier  and  illegedly  arrested. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GREVY     95 

politician,  who  had  the  octogenarian  Presi- 
dent under  his  thumb.  The  matter  reached 
the  scale  of  a  Cabinet  crisis,  since  it  was  by  an 
overthrow  of  the  Ministry  that  the  President 
could  best  be  reached.  Unfortunately,  Grevy 
could  not  see  that  the  most  dignified  thing  for 
him  to  do  was  to  resign,  even  though  he  was 
in  no  way  involved  in  Wilson's  misdemeanors. 
For  days  he  tried  to  persuade  prominent  men 
to  form  a  Cabinet;  he  tried  to  argue  his  right 
and  duty  to  remain.  But  finally  the  Chamber 
and  Senate  brought  actual  pressure  upon  him 
by  voting  to  adjourn  to  specific  hours  in  the 
expectation  of  a  presidential  communication. 
He  bowed  to  the  inevitable  and  retired  from 
the  Presidency  with  the  reputation  of  a  dis- 
credited old  miser,  instead  of  the  great  states- 
man he  had  appeared  on  beginning  his  term  of 
office. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   ADMINISTRATION  OF   SADI   CARNOT 

December,  1887,  to  June,  i8q4 

The  successor  of  Jules  Grevy  was  Sadi  Carnot, 
in  many  ways  the  best  choice.  As  has  been 
seen,  the  transition  was  less  easy  than  the 
two  ballots  of  the  National  Assembly  seemed 
to  indicate  (Decembers,  1887).  The  intrigues 
of  the  so-called  "nuits  historiques"  (Novem- 
ber 28-30)  had  been  an  endeavor  of  the  Radi- 
cals to  keep  Grevy,  in  order  to  ward  off  Jules 
Ferry  as  his  successor.  Finally,  Carnot  was 
a  compromise  candidate,  or  "dark  horse,"  a 
Moderate  acceptable  to  the  Radicals  still  un- 
willing to  endure  the  leading  candidate  Ferry. 
President  Carnot,  hitherto  known  chiefly  as 
a  capable  civil  engineer  and  a  successful  Cabi- 
net ofTicer,  was  the  heir  to  the  name  and  tradi- 
tions of  a  great  republican  family.  His  integ- 
rity was  a  guarantee  of  honesty  in  office,  and 
his  personal  dignity  was  bound  to  heighten 
the  prestige  of  the  chief  magistracy,  somewhat 
weakened  by  his  predecessor  Grevy.    On  the 


■ 

F 

■ 

HP 

'^•L 

1 

^Hi 

Op^ 

_     ' 

^^^^K 

^^K 
^^B 

^iB          JH^^Kki.'^miH 

m 

rjj 

w 

ip^-^aj 

||W.v 

Mi'^^i 

^HKa, 

luBJjA^^^^ 

tHP^^^^^'F^^^^B 

^^^^H^^^Bi 

JI^^^^H 

SADI   CARNOT 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  CARNOT    97 

other  hand,  Carnot's  conception  of  the  consti- 
tutional irresponsibility  or  neutrality  of  his 
office  was  an  insufficient  bulwark  to  the  State 
against  the  intrigues  of  petty  politicians  and 
the  inefficiencies  of  the  parliamentary  regime. 
Consequently  his  term  of  office  saw  the  Repub- 
lic exposed  to  two  of  the  worst  crises  in  its 
history,  the  Boulanger  campaign  and  the  Pan- 
ama scandals,  while  the  legislative  history  re- 
cords the  overthrow  of  successive  cabinets. 
These  followed  each  other  without  definite 
constructive  policy,  and  aimed  chiefly  at  keep- 
ing power  by  constant  dickerings  and  playing 
off  group  against  group. 

The  demoralization  of  parliamentary  life 
had  reached  a  climax.  The  Republicans  were 
divided  into  the  Moderates,  former  followers 
of  Gambetta,  the  Radicals  with  Floquet  and 
Brisson,  the  Extreme  Left  with  Clemenceau  and 
Pelletan,  the  Socialists  with  Millerand,  Basly, 
and  Clovis  Hugues.  The  Royalists  and  Bona- 
partists  worked  against  the  Government  and 
the  Boulangists  took  advantage  of  the  chaos  to 
push  their  cause.  The  Socialists,  in  particular, 
were  a  new  group  in  the  Chamber,  destined  in 
later  years  to  hold  the  centre  of  the  stage.  In 


98        THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

their  manifesto  of  December,  1887,  signed  by 
seventeen  Deputies,  they  advocated,  in  addi- 
tion to  innumerable  specific  reforms  or  practi- 
cal innovations,  schemes  for  the  reorganization 
of  society :  state  monopolies,  nationalization  of 
property,  progressive  taxation,  and  the  like. 

The  year  1888,  characterized  by  intense 
political  and  social  unrest,  was  critical.  The 
trial  and  conviction  of  Grevy's  son-in-law  Wil- 
son involved  washing  dirty  linen  in  public. 
The  steady  growth  of  Boulangism  testified  to 
dissatisfaction,  even  though,  as  it  proved,  the 
enemies  of  the  established  order  had  united  on 
a  worthless  adventurer  as  their  leader. 

General  Boulanger  had  been  first  "invented" 
as  a  leader  by  the  extreme  Radicals,  and  es- 
pecially by  Clemenceau,  the  demolisseur  or 
destroyer  of  ministries.  Then,  being  gradually 
abandoned  by  them,  he  went  over  to  the  anti- 
Republicans  and  took  heavy  subsidies  from 
the  Monarchists,  while  continuing  to  advocate, 
at  least  openly,  an  anti-parliamentary,  plebis- 
citary Republic. 

Early  in  1888,  in  February,  the  candidacy  of 
Boulanger  to  the  Chamber  was  started  in  sev- 
eral departments.  The  electioneering  activities 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  CARNOT    99 

of  a  general  in  regular  service  and  sundry  deeds 
of  insubordination  on  his  part  finally  caused 
the  Government,  as  a  disciplinary  measure, 
to  retire  him.  The  result  was  that  his  partisans 
raised  a  cry  of  persecution,  and  his  actual 
retirement  gave  him  the  liberty  to  engage  in 
politics  which  his  service  on  the  active  list  had 
prevented.  In  April  Boulanger  was  elected 
Deputy  in  the  southern  department  of  la 
Dordogne  and  the  northern  le  Nord.  His  plan 
of  campaign  was  to  be  candidate  for  Deputy 
in  each  department  successively  in  which  a 
vacancy  occurred,  thus  indirectly  and  gradu- 
ally obtaining  a  plebiscite  of  approval  from  the 
country.  At  the  same  time  he  raised  the  cry  in 
favor  of  militarism,  not  for  the  sake  of  war,  he 
said,  but  for  defence.  He  attacked  the  impo- 
tence of  Parliament  and,  as  a  remedy,  called 
for  the  dissolution  of  the  Chamber  and  the  con- 
vocation of  a  Constituent  Assembly  to  revise 
the  constitution.  His  opponents  raised  the 
answering  cry  of  dictatorship  and  Caesarism. 
The  election  in  the  Nord  was  particularly 
alarming  because  of  Boulanger's  majority. 

Boulanger  now  had  both  Moderates  and 
many  Radicals  against  him,   including  the 


100      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

Prime  Minister  Floquet,  and  was,  on  the  other 
hand,  supported  openly  or  secretly  by  the  Im- 
perialists and  Monarchists,  advocates  for  vary- 
ing purposes  of  the  plebiscite.  The  Royalists, 
who  thought  their  chances  of  success  the  most 
hopeful,  wanted  to  use  Boulanger  as  a  tool  to 
further  their  designs  for  the  overthrow  of  the 
Republic.  Not  only  did  he  receive  funds  from 
the  pretender,  the  comte  de  Paris,  but  an 
ardent  Royalist  lady  of  rank,  the  duchesse 
d'Uzes,  squandered  millions  of  francs  in  fur- 
thering Boulanger's  political  schemes  as  leader 
of  the  Boulangists:  the  "National  Party"  or 
"Revisionists." 

In  June,  1888,  Boulanger  brought  forward  in 
the  Chamber  a  project  for  a  revision  of  the  con- 
stitution. He  advocated  a  single  Chamber,  or, 
if  a  Senate  were  conceded,  demanded  that  it 
be  chosen  by  popular  vote.  The  power  of  the 
Chamber  was  to  be  diminished,  that  of  the 
President  increased,  and  laws  were  to  be  sub- 
ject to  ratification  by  plebiscite  or  referendum. 
The  measure  was  naturally  rejected,  but  Bou- 
langer renewed  the  attack  in  July  by  demand- 
ing the  dissolution  of  the  Chamber.  In  the 
excitement  of  the  debate  the  lie  was  passed  be- 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  CARNOT     loi 

tween  Boulangerand  the  President  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  Ministers,  Floquet.  Boulanger  resigned 
his  seat  and  in  a  duel,  a  few  days  later,  between 
Floquet  and  Boulanger,  the  dashing  general, 
the  warrior  of  the  black  horse,  and  the  hero  of 
the  popular  song  "En  rev'nant  d'la  revue," 
was  ignominiously  wounded  by  the  civilian 
politician. 

But  Boulanger's  star  was  not  yet  on  the 
wane.  He  continued  to  be  elected  Deputy  in 
different  departments,  and  the  efforts  of  the 
Ministry  to  cut  the  ground  from  under  his  feet 
by  bringing  in  a  separate  revisionary  project 
did  not  undermine  his  popularity  with  the 
rabble,  the  jingo  Ligue  des  Patriotes  of  Paul 
Deroulede,  and  the  anti-Republican  malcon- 
tents. In  January,  1889,  after  a  fiercely  con- 
tested and  spectacular  campaign,  he  was  elected 
Deputy  for  the  department  of  the  Seine,  con- 
taining the  city  of  Paris,  nerve-centre  of  France. 
It  is  generally,  conceded  that  if  Boulanger  had 
gone  to  the  Elysee,  the  presidential  mansion, 
on  the  evening  of  his  election,  and  turned  out 
Carnot,  he  would  have  had  the  Parisian  popu- 
lace and  the  pohce  with  him  in  carrying  out  a 
coup  d'etat.  Luckily  for  the  country  his  judg- 


RIVER3:DE 


102      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

ment  or  his  nerve  failed  him  at  the  crucial  mo- 
ment, and  from  that  time  his  influence  dimin- 
ished. The  panic-stricken  Government  was 
able  to  thwart  his  plebiscitary  appeals  by  re- 
establishing the  scrutin  d'arrondissement,  or 
election  by  small  districts  instead  of  by  whole 
departments.  Moreover,  when  the  Floquet 
Cabinet  fell  soon  after  on  its  own  revisionary 
project,  the  succeeding  Tirard  Ministry  was 
able  to  pass  a  law  preventing  simultaneous 
multiple  candidacies,  and  impeached  Bou- 
langer,  with  some  of  his  followers,  before  the 
Senate  as  High  Court  of  Justice.  Instead  of 
facing  trial,  Boulanger  and  his  satellites  Dil- 
lon and  Henri  Rochefort  fled  from  France.  In 
August  they  were  condemned  in  absence  to 
imprisonment.  Boulanger  never  returned  to 
France,  and  with  diminishing  subsidies  his 
following  waned.  The  elections  of  1889  resulted 
in  the  return  of  only  thirty-eight  Boulangists 
and,  when  in  September,  1891,  Boulanger  com- 
mitted suicide  in  Brussels  at  the  grave  of  his 
mistress,  most  Frenchmen  merely  gave  a  sigh 
of  relief  at  the  memory  of  the  dangers  they  had 
experienced  not  so  long  before. 
The  International  Exposition  of  1889  af- 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  CARNOT     io3 

forded  a  breathing  spell  in  the  midst  of  poUtical 
anxieties,  and  helped,  by  its  evidence  of  the 
Republic's  prosperity,  to  weaken  Boulanger's 
cause.  But  unsettled  social  and  religious  prob- 
lems remained  troublesome.  The  successive 
cabinets  after  the  Floquet  Ministry,  and  fol- 
lowing the  general  election  of  1889,  pursued  a 
policy  of  "Republican  concentration,"  com- 
bining Moderate  and  Radical  elements,  disap- 
pearing often  without  important  motives,  and 
replaced  by  cabinets  of  approximately  the  same 
coloring.  The  Clerical  Party  was  hand-in- 
glove  with  the  Royahsts  and  the  Boulangists. 
It  took  advantage  of  governmental  instabihty 
to  try  to  undermine  the  Republic,  but  its  own 
harmony  of  purpose  was  in  due  time  diminished 
by  the  new  policy  of  Leo  XIII.  That  astute 
Italian  diplomat  was  himself  temperamentally 
an  Opportunist.  He  conceived  the  idea  of  con- 
trolling France  by  advances  to  the  Republic 
and  by  feigning  to  accept  it  in  order  to  get 
hold  of  its  policies,  especially  the  educational 
and  military  laws.  He  realized,  too,  the  harm 
done  to  the  Vatican  by  the  stubbornness  of 
many  French  Catholics.  He  felt  the  necessity 
of  making  amends  for  the  behavior  of  the 


io4      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

Catholic  Royalists  in  the  Boulanger  affair. 
Certain  prelates,  including  the  Archbishop  of 
Aix,  Monseigneur  Gouthe-Soulard,  attacked 
the  Government  violently  at  the  end  of  1891 
in  connection  with  disturbances  by  French 
pilgrims  to  Rome  who  had  manifested  in  favor 
of  the  Pope  and  written  "Vive  le  Pape-Roi!" 
at  the  tomb  of  Victor  Emmanuel.  The  French 
Catholics  tended  to  resent  the  interference 
of  the  Pope,  but  the  latter,  who  had  for  some 
months  received  the  support  of  Cardinal  La- 
vigerie.  Archbishop  of  Algiers  and  Primate  of 
Africa,  tried  to  bring  pressure  on  the  leaders 
of  the  French  clergy.  In  February,  1892,  as  a 
rejoinder  to  a  manifesto  by  five  French  cardi- 
nals, came  his  famous  encyclical  letter  advo- 
cating the  established  order  of  things.  "The 
civil  power  considered  as  such  is  from  God 
and  always  from  God.  . .  .  Consequently,  when 
new  governments  representing  this  new  power 
are  constituted,  to  accept  them  is  not  only 
permitted  but  demanded,  or  even  imposed, 
by  the  needs  of  the  social  good."  This  en- 
cyclical was  followed  by  a  letter  to  the  French 
cardinals  in  May  and  by  other  manifestations 
of  his  wishes.  Thus  a  certain  number  of  Cath- 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  CARNOT     io5 

olics,  among  whom  the  comte  de  Mun  and 
Jacques  Piou  were  leaders,  cut  adrift  from  the 
Right  and  adhered  to  the  RepubHc,  forming 
the  small  group  of  "Rallies."  They  were  never 
very  numerous  or  powerful,  and  the  Dreyfus 
affair,  a  few  years  later,  showed  how  the  Pope's 
desire  to  rally  the  Catholics  to  the  Republic 
was  thwarted  by  the  French  clergy  and  the 
reactionaries. 

The  procedure  of  Leo  XIII  was  thus  a  proof 
that  the  Vatican  wanted  to  be  on  good  terms 
with  the  Republic.  The  rapprochement  with 
Russia  was  another  proof  that  France,  in  spite 
of  its  troubles,  was  to  be  reckoned  with  in  Eu- 
rope. France  and  Russia  felt  it  necessary  to 
draw  together  in  answer  to  the  noisy  renewal 
of  the  Triple  Alliance.  There  had  been  tension 
in  the  spring  of  1891,  in  which  the  French  were 
not  wholly  blameless,  as  a  result  of  the  private 
visit  to  Paris  of  the  dowager  empress  of  Ger- 
many, the  Empress  Frederick.  In  the  summer 
of  1891  a  French  fleet  under  Admiral  Ger- 
vais  was  invited  to  Russian  waters.  It  visited 
Cronstadt,  and  the  Czar  and  the  President 
exchanged  telegrams  of  sympathy.  On  the 
return  to  France  the  same  fleet  visited  Ports- 


io6      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

mouth  by  invitation,  and  was  welcomed  by  the 
Queen  and  the  authorities.  The  visit  to  Eng- 
land did  not,  however,  have  the  same  meaning 
as  the  Russian  one.  "Portsmouth"  meant  an 
expression  of  England's  freedom  of  action  face- 
to-face  with  the  Triple  Alliance,  and  an  en- 
deavor to  smooth  French  susceptibilities  re- 
cently ruffled  by  Lord  Salisbury.  After  an 
Anglo-French  compact,  in  August,  1890,  for 
the  partition  of  protectorates  and  zones  of 
influence  in  Africa,  the  British  Prime  Minister 
alluded  rather  scoffingly  in  the  House  of  Lords 
to  the  lack  of  value  of  the  Sahara  assigned  to 
the  French.  "  Cronstadt,"  as  opposed  to  "  Ports- 
mouth," meant  an  active  understanding,  to 
be  followed  in  1892  by  a  military  defensive 
compact  negotiated  in  St.  Petersburg  by 
General  de  Boisdeffre,  head  of  the  French 
General  Staff. 

The  return  visit  of  the  Russians  took  place 
at  Toulon  in  1893,  and  Admiral  Avellan  with 
his  staff  visited  Paris,  which  went  wild  with 
enthusiasm.  At  that  moment  French  relations 
with  Italy  were  strained,  partly  because  the 
Italian  Government  was  jealous  of  the  cor- 
diality between  the  Pope  and  the  Republic. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  CARNOT     107 

The  Franco-Russian  manifestation  was  a  new 
veiled  warning. 

In  1892,  under  the  leadership  of  Jules  Meline, 
the  Chamber  adopted  a  protective  tariff  policy. 
This  resulted  in  several  tariff  disputes  and  en- 
gendered bad  feeling  with  various  countries, 
including  Italy. 

The  desperate  attack  of  the  Royalists,  en- 
gineered mainly  against  the  Republic  in  the 
Panama  scandals,  helped  to  bring  the  Pope 
and  the  State  still  closer  together,  so  that  at 
certain  times  the  Rallies  or  Republican  Cath- 
olics and  the  Royalists  fought  each  other  vio- 
lently. The  Panama  scandal  was  planned  in 
view  of  the  elections  of  1893.  During  the  decade 
following  1880  Ferdinand  de  Lesseps,  the  suc- 
cessful builder  of  the  Suez  Canal,  had  organized 
and  tried  to  finance  a  company  to  construct  a 
canal  at  Panama.  The  prestige  of  Lesseps's 
name  and  the  memory  of  his  previous  achieve- 
ment made  countless  Frenchmen  invest  huge 
sums  in  the  company.  But  the  expenses  were 
enormous  and  the  financial  maladministration 
apparently  extraordinary,  for  the  directors 
of  the  company  were  led  into  illegal  steps 
in  order  to  influence  legislation,  or  pay  hush 


io8      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

money  to  the  press  to  hide  the  condition  of  af- 
fairs, and  then  were  blackmailed  into  further 
outlays.  The  company  failed  in  1888,  and  ef- 
forts to  put  it  on  its  feet  proved  abortive.  Hints 
of  the  scandals  leaked  out,  and  the  Government 
played  into  the  hands  of  its  opponents  by  trying 
to  conceal  matters. 

In  November,  1892,  some  Royalist  members 
of  the  Chamber  brought  matters  to  a  head 
and  the  Government  was  obliged  to  do  some- 
thing. It  was  decided  to  proceed  against  Fer- 
dinand de  Lesseps,  his  son  Charles  de  Lesseps, 
Henri  Cottu,  Marius  Fontane,  members  of 
the  board  of  directors,  and  G.  Eiffel,  an  en- 
gineer and  contractor  and  the  builder  of  the 
famous  Eiffel  Tower.  At  this  juncture  a  well- 
known  Jewish  banker  of  Paris,  Baron  Jacques 
de  Reinach,  died  suddenly  and  most  mysteri- 
ously on  November  20.  He  was  openly  charged 
with  being  the  bribery  agent  of  the  company, 
and  his  sudden  death  was  by  some  called  sui- 
cide, while  others  hinted  that  he  had  been  put 
out  of  the  way  because  of  his  dangerous  knowl- 
edge. 

Under  these  exciting  conditions  a  Boulang- 
ist  Deputy  named,  Delahaye  made  an  inter- 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  CARNOT     109 

pellation  in  the  Chamber  hinting  at  the  cam- 
paign of  corruption  carried  on  by  the  company 
through  the  agency  of  Reinach  and  two  other 
Jews  of  German  origin,  Arton  and  Cornehus 
Herz,  the  latter  a  naturalized  American  citizen. 
By  this  campaign  it  was  charged  that  three 
million  francs  had  been  used  to  corrupt  more 
than  a  hundred  and  fifty  Deputies,  and  much 
more  had  been  spent  in  other  ways. 

A  commission  of  thirty-three  was  appointed 
under  the  chairmanship  of  Henri  Brisson.  The 
Royalists  and  Radicals  were  having  their  in- 
nings against  the  Government,  and  their  news- 
papers continued  to  publish  rumors  and  "revel- 
ations." The  commission  called  for  the  autopsy 
of  Reinach.  The  Loubet  Cabinet,  refusing  to 
grant  it,  was  voted  down  and  resigned.  The 
Ribot  Ministry  was  then  constituted,  but  at 
intervals  lost  successively  two  of  its  most 
prominent  members,  Rouvier  and  Freycinet, 
accused  of  complicity  in  the  scandals.  Even 
the  leaders  of  the  Radicals,  Clemenceau  and 
Floquet,  in  time  found  themselves  involved. 
The  former  was  charged  with  tricky  dealings 
with  Cornelius  Herz,  the  latter  was  shown  to 
have  demanded  money  from  the  company, 


no      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

when  Minister,  in  order  to  use  it  for  political 
subsidies. 

In  December  the  Cabinet  decided  to  arrest 
Charles  de  Lesseps,  Marius  Fontane,  Henri 
Cottu,  and  a  former  Deputy,  Sans-Leroy,  ac- 
cused of  having  accepted  a  bribe  of  two  hun- 
dred thousand  francs.  At  the  same  time,  on 
the  basis  of  the  seizure  of  twenty-six  cheque 
stubs  at  the  bank  used  by  the  baron  de  Rein- 
ach,  the  Minister  of  Justice  proceeded  against 
ten  prominent  Deputies  and  Senators,  among 
whom  was  Albert  Grevy,  former  Governor- 
General  of  Algeria,  and  brother  of  Jules  Grevy. 
The  Government  seemed  panic-stricken  in  its 
readiness  to  sacrifice,  on  mere  suspicion,  promi- 
nent members  of  its  party.  All  the  parliament- 
aries  accused  were,  in  due  time,  exonerated. 

The  directors  of  the  company  came  up  for 
trial  twice.  The  first  time,  with  M.  Eiffel,  in 
January-February,  1893,  and  the  second  time, 
with  other  defendants,  in  March,  before  dif- 
ferent jurisdictions  on  varying  charges,  they 
were  condemned  to  fine  and  imprisonment. 
On  appeal,  in  April,  these  condemnations  were 
revised  or  annulled.  One  person  became  the 
scapegoat,  a  former  Minister  of  Public  Works 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  CARNOT     iii 

named  Baihaut,  condemned  to  civil  degrada- 
tion, five  years'  imprisonment,  and  a  heavy 
fine. 

Scandal  was,  however,  not  satisfied  with  these 
names.  There  was  also  talk  of  a  mysterious 
list  of  one  hundred  and  four  Deputies  charged 
with  accepting  bribes  from  Arton.  Moreover, 
it  was  felt  that  quashing  the  indictments 
against  prominent  men  Uke  Rouvier  and  Albert 
Grevy  was  poor  policy.  If  they  were  innocent 
they  could  prove  their  innocence.  Under  the 
circumstances  suspicion  would  still  be  rife. 
The  state  of  general  anarchy  was  also  revealed 
by  the  evidence  of  the  wife  of  Henri  Cottu, 
who  testified  that  agents  of  the  Government 
had  offered  her  husband  immunity  if  he  would 
implicate  a  member  of  the  Opposition.^ 

The  Panama  scandal  was  largely  the  work 

^  The  Panama  affair  was  a  violent  shock  to  the  Republic.  Peo- 
ple were  amazed  at  the  charges  of  widespread  corruption  and  the 
tendency  on  the  part  of  the  Government  to  smooth  things  over. 
Suspicions  aroused  were  not  fully  satisfied  because  Reinach  was 
dead  and  Herz  and  Arton  in  flight.  Cornelius  Herz  successfully 
fought  extradition  from  England  on  the  plea  of  illness.  Arton  waa 
arrested  in  iSgB  and  extradited.  His  arrest  caused  a  renewal  of 
talk  about  Panama  and  the  newspaper  la  France  undertook  to 
print  the  famous  list  of  one  hundred  and  four  Deputies.  This 
publication  was  recognized  to  be  a  case  of  blackmail  and  its  pro- 
moters were  punished.  Arton  was  also  condemned  to  a  term  of  hard 
labor,  but  his  trial  did  not  bring  out  the  longed-for  revelations. 


112      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

of  the  Monarchists  angry  at  the  failure  of  the 
Boulanger  campaign.  It  did  them  no  good,  as 
the  elections  to  the  new  Chamber  proved.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  worked  havoc  among  the 
leaders  of  the  Moderates,  who,  innocent  or 
blameworthy,  fell  under  popular  suspicion,  and 
were  in  many  cases  relegated  to  the  background 
in  favor  of  new  leaders.  Moreover,  it  helped 
the  Socialists,  and  even,  by  throwing  discredit 
on  parliamentarism,  it  encouraged  lawless  out- 
breaks of  anarchists. 

New  men  in  party  leaderships  came  in  the 
composite  Cabinet  of  Moderate  leanings  led  by 
Charles  Dupuy  in  April,  1893.  He  seemed  at 
first  to  incline  toward  the  Conservatives  and 
treated  with  considerable  severity  some  street 
disturbances.  A  prank  of  art  students  at  their 
annual  ball  (Bal  des  quaV-z-arts)  was  mag- 
nified into  a  street  riot  and  was  not  quelled 
until  after  the  loss  of  a  life.  The  Bourse  du 
travail  (Workmen's  Exchange)  was  closed  by 
the  Government  after  other  disturbances. 

The  elections  in  August  and  September  re- 
sulted in  a  large  Republican  majority  and  a 
corresponding  decline  in  the  anti-Republican 
Right.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Radicals  rose  to 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  CARNOT     ii3 

about  a  hundred  and  fifty,  and  the  Socialists 
were  about  fifty,  forming  for  the  first  time  a 
large  party  able  to  make  its  influence  felt. 
The  "Socialistic-Radicals"  represented  an 
effort  toward  a  compromise  between  the  ad- 
vanced groups. 

The  desire  of  the  Moderate  leaders  of  the 
Republic  to  meet  the  Pope  halfway  in  his  pol- 
icy of  conciliation  was  expressed  in  a  note- 
worthy speech  made  in  the  Chamber  in  March, 
1894,  by  the  then  Minister  of  Public  Worship, 
Eugene  Spuller.  Answering  the  query  of  a 
Royalist  Deputy,  the  Minister  declared  that 
the  time  had  come  to  put  an  end  to  fanaticism 
and  sectarianism,  and  that  the  country  could 
count  on  the  vigilance  of  the  Government  to 
maintain  its  rights,  and  on  the  new  frame  of 
mind  (esprit  nouveau)  which  inspired  it,  which 
tended  to  reconcile  all  French  citizens  and 
bring  about  a  revival  of  common  sense,  jus- 
tice, and  charity. 

But  the  anarchists  were  not  moved  by  any 
spirit  of  conciliation.  Borrowing  methods  of 
violence  from  the  Russian  nihilists,  they  used 
bomb-throwing  to  draw  attention  to  the  vices 
of  social  organization  and  to  themselves.  Dur- 


ii4      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

ing  1892, 1893,  and  1894  they  tried  to  terrorize 
Paris.  The  deeds  of  various  criminals,  including 
Ravachol,  Vaillant  (who  threw  a  bomb  in  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies),^  Emile  Henry,  among 
others,  culminated  at  last  in  the  cruel  murder 
of  President  Carnot.  On  June  24,  1894,  while 
at  Lyons,  whither  he  had  gone  to  pay  a  state 
visit  to  an  international  exhibition.  President 
Carnot  was  fatally  stabbed  by  an  underwitted 
Italian  anarchist  named  Caserio  Santo,  and 
died  within  a  few  hours.  Never  were  more 
futile  and  abominable  crimes  committed  than 
those  which  sacrificed  Carnot  and  McKinley. 

^  M.  Dupuy,  then  President  of  the  Chamber,  got  much  credit 
for  his  calmness  and  his  remark,  as  the  smoke  of  the  bomb  cletired 
away,  "La  s^eince  continue." 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  JEAN  CASIMIR-PERIER 
June,  1894,  to  January,  1896 

AND  OF  FELIX  FAURE 
January,  1895,  to  February,  1899 

The  customary  promptness  in  the  choice  of 
a  President,  so  unfamiliar  to  American  cam- 
paigns, was  observed  in  the  election  of  Carnot's 
successor.  The  historic  name  and  the  social 
and  financial  position  of  the  new  chief  mag- 
istrate, Jean  Casimir-Perier,  seemed  to  the 
monarchical  sister-nations  a  guarantee  of  na- 
tional stability  and  dignity.  In  reality  the  elec- 
tion brought  about  a  more  definite  cleavage 
between  rival  political  tendencies.  Casimir- 
Perier,  grandson  of  Louis-Philippe's  great 
minister,  obviously  represented  the  Moderates, 
most  of  whom  tried  in  all  sincerity  to  carry  out 
the  esprit  nouveau  and  a  policy  of  good-will 
toward  the  Catholic  Church.  The  Radicals  said 
that  this  was  playing  into  the  hands  of  the 
Clericals,  and  to  the  Socialists  Casimir-Perier 
was  merely  a  hated  capitalist.  He  was,  more- 


ii6      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

over,  unfortunately  unfit  for  the  acrimonies 
of  political  life.  High-strung  and  emotional, 
he  writhed  under  misinterpretation  and  abuse, 
and  rebelled  against  the  constitutional  power- 
lessness  of  his  ofTice.  He  had  never  really 
wanted  the  Presidency  and  had  accepted  it 
chiefly  through  the  personal  persuasion  of  his 
friend  the  statesman  Burdeau,  who  unfortun- 
ately died  soon  after  his  election.  The  brief 
Presidency  of  Casimir-Perier,  lasting  less  than 
a  year,  was  destined  to  see  the  beginning  of  the 
worst  trial  the  French  Republic  had  yet  ex- 
perienced, the  famous  Dreyfus  case. 

The  Administration,  in  which  Dupuy  re- 
mained Prime  Minister,  began  by  repressive 
measures,  laws  directed  against  the  anarchists 
and  the  trial  en  masse  of  thirty  defendants 
ranging  from  Utopian  theorists  to  actual  crimi- 
nals. Most  of  them  were  acquitted,  but  the 
procedure  did  not  ingratiate  the  Government 
with  the  advanced  parties.  Toward  the  end 
of  1894  the  Dreyfus  case  began  to  be  talked  of, 
an  affair  which  was  destined  to  develop  into  a 
tremendous  struggle  of  the  leaders  of  the  army 
and  the  Church  to  obtain  control  of  the  nation. 

In  September,  1894,  an  officer  named  Henry, 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  CASIMIR-PERIER    117 

of  the  spy  service  of  the  French  army,  came 
into  possession  of  a  document  pieced  together 
from  fragments  stolen  from  a  waste-paper 
basket  in  the  German  Embassy.  This  docu- 
ment, containing  a  bordereau  or  memorandum 
of  information  largely  about  the  French  artil- 
lery offered  to  the  German  military  attache, 
Schwartzkoppen,  was  anonymous,  but  Henry 
undoubtedly  recognized,  sooner  or  later,  the 
handwriting'  of  a  friend,  Major  Esterhazy,  a 
soldier  of  fortune  in  the  French  army,  of  bad 
reputation  and  shady  character.  Unable  to  de- 
stroy the  document,  which  had  been  seen  by 
others,  Henry  tried  to  fasten  it  on  somebody 
else.  Indeed,  many  people  believe  that  Henry 
was  an  accomplice  of  Esterhazy  in  German 
pay.  By  a  strange  coincidence  it  happened  that 
the  handwriting  of  the  bordereau  somewhat  re- 
sembled that  of  a  brilliant  young  Jewish  officer 
of  the  General  Staff  named  Alfred  Dreyfus.  He 
belonged  to  a  wealthy  Alsatian  family,  and 
from  antecedent  probability  would  not  seem 
to  need  to  play  a  traitor's  part,  but  he  was 
intensely  unpopular  among  his  fellows  because 
of  many  disagreeable  traits  of  character.  More- 
over, anti-Semitism,  formerly  non-existent  in 


ii8      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

France,  was  now  rife.  It  had  been  largely  fo- 
mented by  the  anti-Jewish  agitator  Edouard 
Drumont,  with  his  book  la  France  juive  (1886) 
and  his  newspaper  the  Libre  Parole  (1892). 
Prejudice  against  the  Jews  as  tricky  financiers 
had  been  prepared  and  encouraged  by  the  sen- 
sational failure  of  the  great  bank,  the  Union 
generale,  a  Catholic  rival  of  the  Rothschilds, 
in  1882,  and  by  the  Panama  scandals  with 
the  doings  of  Jacques  de  Reinach,  Cornelius 
Herz,  and  Arton.  The  Libre  Parole  had  worked 
against  Jewish  ofTicers  in  the  army,  an  activity 
which  culminated  in  some  sensational  duels, 
particularly  one  between  Captain  Mayer  and 
the  marquis  de  Mores  (1892),  in  which  the  Jew 
was  killed. 

So,  in  the  present  instance,  the  Minister  of 
War,  General  Mercier,  who  had  recently  com- 
mitted some  much-criticized  administrative 
blunders,  and  who  now  wished  to  show  his 
efficiency,  caused  the  arrest  of  Dreyfus.  Then, 
egged  on  by  anti-Semitic  newspapers  which 
had  got  hold  of  Dreyfus's  name,  Mercier 
brought  him  before  a  court-martial.  The  trial 
was  held  in  secret,  and  the  War  Department 
sent  to  the  officers  constituting  the  tribunal, 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  CASIMIR-PERIER    119 

without  the  knowledge  of  the  prisoner  or  his 
counsel  Maitre  Demange,  a  secret  dossier,  a 
collection  of  trumped-up  incriminating  docu- 
ments. Demange  devoted  himself  to  proving 
that  Dreyfus  was  not  the  author  of  the  border- 
eau, but  the  members  of  the  court-martial,  be- 
lieving in'  the  genuineness  of  the  additional 
documents,  unhesitatingly  convicted  him  of 
treason.  Consequently,  in  spite  of  his  pro- 
testations of  innocence,  Dreyfus  was  publicly 
degraded  on  January  5,  1895,  and  hustled 
off  to  solitary  confinement  on  the  unhealthy 
Devil's  Isle,  off  the  coast  of  French  Guiana. 
Meanwhile  the  whole  French  people  sincerely 
believed  that  a  vile  traitor  had  been  justly 
condemned  and  that  the  secrecy  of  the  case 
was  due  to  the  advisability  of  avoiding  dip- 
lomatic complications  with  Germany.  With 
dramatic  unexpectedness,  only  ten  days  later 
(January  15),  Casimir-Perier  resigned  the 
Presidency. 

During  the  whole  Dreyfus  affair  Casimir- 
Perier  had  chafed  because  his  ministers  had  con- 
stantly acted  without  keeping  him  informed, 
particularly  when  he  was  called  upon  by  the 
German  Government  to  acknowledge  that  it 


120      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

had  had  nothing  to  do  with  Dreyfus.  He  had 
lost  by  death  the  support  of  his  friend  Burdeau; 
he  was  discouraged  by  the  campaign  of  abuse 
against  him,  especially  the  election  as  Deputy 
in  Paris  of  Gerault-Richard,  one  of  his  most  ac- 
tive vilifiers.  In  particular  he  felt  that  his  own 
Cabinet,  and  above  all  its  leader  Dupuy,  were 
false  to  him.  A  discussion  in  the  Chamber 
concerning  the  duration  of  the  state  guar- 
antees to  certain  of  the  great  railway  com- 
panies ended  in  a  vote  unfavorable  to  the  Cabi- 
net, which  resigned,  whereupon  Casimir-Perier 
seized  the  opportunity  to  go  too.  The  Social- 
ists declared  that  Dupuy  had  provoked  his 
own  defeat  in  order  to  embarrass  the  Presi- 
dent by  the  difficulty  of  forming  a  new  Cabinet, 
and  make  him  resign  as  well. 

Two  days  later  the  electoral  Congress  met 
at  Versailles.  The  Radicals  supported  Henri 
Brisson.  The  Moderates  and  the  Conserva- 
tives were  divided  between  Waldeck-Rous- 
seau  and  Felix  Faure,  but  Waldeck-Rousseau 
having  thrown  his  strength  on  the  second 
ballot  to  Faure,  the  latter  was  elected. 

The  new  President,  recently  Minister  of  the 
Navy,  was  a  well-meaning  man,  but  full  of 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  FELIX  FAURE    121 

vanity  and  naively  delighted  with  his  own  rise 
in  the  world  from  a  humble  position  to  that  of 
chief  magistrate.  The  extent  to  which  his  judg- 
ment was  warped  by  his  temperament  is  shown 
by  the  later  developments  of  the  Dreyfus  case. 

Felix  Faure's  first  Cabinet  was  led  by  the 
Republican  Moderate  Alexandre  Ribot.  It 
lasted  less  than  a  year  and  its  history  was 
chiefly  noteworthy,  at  least  in  foreign  affairs, 
by  the  increasing  openness  of  the  Franco-Rus- 
sian rapprochement  at  the  ceremonies  of  the 
inauguration  of  the  Kiel  Canal.  In  internal 
affairs  there  were  some  violent  industrial  dis- 
turbances and  strikes. 

In  October,  1895,  the  Moderates  gave  way 
to  the  Radical  Cabinet  of  Leon  Bourgeois.  It 
was  viewed  with  suspicion  by  the  moneyed  in- 
terests, who  accused  it  of  gravitating  toward  the 
Socialists.  The  cleavage  between  the  two  ten- 
dencies of  the  Republican  Party  became  more 
marked.  The  Moderates  joined  forces  with  the 
Conservatives  to  oppose  the  schemes  for  so- 
cial and  financial  reforms  of  the  Radicals  and 
of  the  representatives  of  the  working  classes. 
Prominent  among  these  was  the  proposal  for 
a  progressive  income  tax.   The  Senate,  natu- 


122      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPURLIG 

rally  a  more  conservative  body,  was  opposed  to 
the  Bourgeois  Cabinet,  which  had  a  majority, 
though  not  a  very  steadfast  one,  in  the  Cham- 
ber of  Deputies.  The  Senate,  usually  a  nonen- 
tity in  determining  the  fall  of  a  cabinet,  for 
once  successfully  asserted  its  power  and,  by 
refusing  to  vote  the  credits  asked  for  by  the 
Ministry  for  the  Madagascar  campaign,  caused 
it  to  resign  in  April,  1896.  The  enemies  of  the 
Senate  maintained  that  the  Chamber  of  Depu- 
ties, elected  by  direct  suffrage,  was  the  only 
judge  of  the  fate  of  a  cabinet.  But  Bourgeois's 
hold  was  at  best  precarious  and  he  seized  the 
opportunity  to  withdraw. 

The  Meline  Cabinet  which  followed  was 
a  return  to  the  Moderates  supported  by  the 
Conservatives.  Its  opponents  accused  it  of 
following  what  in  American  political  parlance 
is  called  a  "stand-pat"  policy,  but  it  remained 
in  office  longer  than  any  ministry  up  to  its 
time,  a  little  over  two  years.  It  afforded,  at 
any  rate,  an  opportunity  for  the  adversaries 
of  the  Republic  to  strengthen  their  posi- 
tions and  encouraged  the  transformation  of 
the  Dreyfus  case  into  a  political  instead  of  a 
purely  judicial  matter. 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  FELIX  FAURE    128 

In  foreign  affairs  the  most  spectacular  events 
were  the  visit  of  the  Czar  and  Czarina  to 
France  in  1896  and  the  return  visit  of  the 
French  President  to  Russia  in  1897.  At  the 
banquet  of  leave-taking  on  the  French  war- 
ship Pothuau,  in  their  prepared  speeches,  the 
Czar  and  the  President  made  use  of  the  same 
expression  "friendly  and  allied  nations,"  thus 
publicly  proclaiming  to  Europe  the  alliance 
suspected  since  1891. 

In  spite  of  the  unanimous  feeling  of  Drey- 
fus's  guilt,  his  family  did  not  lose  faith  in  him, 
and  his  brother  Mathieu  set  about  the  appa- 
rently impossible  task  of  rehabilitation.  But  it 
chanced  that  one  other  person  began  to  have 
doubts  of  the  justice  of  Dreyfus's  condemna- 
tion. This  was  Lieutenant-Colonel  Picquart, 
who  had  been  present  at  the  court-martial  as 
representative  of  the  War  Department,  and 
who  had  since  become  chief  of  the  espionage 
service,  and  Henry's  superior.  Another  docu- 
ment stolen  from  a  waste-paper  basket  at  the 
German  Embassy,  an  unforwarded  pneumatic 
despatch  (petit  bleu),  was  brought  to  him,  and 
directed  his  suspicions  to  Esterhazy,  to  whom 
it  was  addressed.   At  first  he  did  not  connect 


i2/i      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

Esterhazy  and  Dreyfus,  but  on  obtaining  speci- 
mens of  Esterhazy's  handwriting  he  was  struck 
by  the  Ukeness  with  that  of  the  bordereau. 
Then,  examining  the  secret  dossier,  to  which 
he  now  had  access,  he  was  stupefied  to  see  its 
insignificance. 

From  this  time  on,  Picquart  worked,  with 
extraordinary  tenacity  of  purpose  and  against 
all  obstacles,  for  the  rehabilitation  of  a  stranger. 
Everybody  was  against  him.  His  chief  subor- 
dinate Henry  dreaded  revelations  above  all 
things,  and  set  his  colleagues  against  him.  His 
superiors  disliked  any  suggestion  that  an  army 
court  could  have  made  a  mistake,  the  remedy- 
ing of  which  would  help  a  Jew. 

Gradually,  however,  the  agitation  started 
by  Mathieu  Dreyfus  was  becoming  stronger. 
He  had  won  the  help  of  a  skilled  writer  Bernard 
Lazare;  a  daily  paper  succeeded  in  obtaining 
and  publishing  a  facsimile  of  the  bordereau. 
But  Picquart  was  sent  away  from  Paris  on  a 
tour  of  inspection,  and  when  the  matter  came 
up  in  the  Chamber,  through  an  interpellation, 
the  Minister  of  War,  General  Billot,  declared 
that  the  judgment  of  1894  was  absolutely  legal 
and  just.  Matters  thus  seemed  settled  again. 


^^^^K                   ^^^^^^^1 

B^^^H 

^v        v^^^^l 

V         ^^V^H 

^^^^^H 

.    r^^^^H 

H    '^      "  ^^^H 

^^^L    ^. '                   -.^^^H 

^^^^'V               .   c^^^^B 

^^W^"^'        '  '^^H 

^^^^^V       ^"'^"^/j/ '     ^  -"  ^jl^BI^^^B 

MARIE-GEORGES  PICQUART 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  FELIX  FAURE    i25 

But  a  prominent  Alsatian  member  of  Parlia- 
ment, Scheurer-Kestner,  one  of  the  Vice-Presi- 
dents of  the  Senate,  was  half-persuaded  by 
Mathieu  and  Bernard  Lazare.  When  Picquart's 
friend  and  legal  adviser,  Leblois,  rather  inju- 
diciously, from  a  professional  point  of  view, 
confided  to  him  his  client's  suspicions,  he  was 
thoroughly  convinced  and  the  two  separate  cur- 
rents of  activity  now  coalesced.  Yet  the  greater 
the  agitation  in  favor  of  Dreyfus,  the  greater 
grew  the  opposition.  The  anti-Semites  shrieked 
with  rage  against  Judas,  the  "traitor."  The 
upper  ranks  of  the  army  were  honeycombed  by 
Clerical  influences.  An  enormous  proportion 
of  the  officers  belonged  to  reactionary  fami- 
lies and  the  Chief  of  Staff  himself.  General  de 
Boisdeffre,  was  under  the  thumb  of  the  Pere 
Du  Lac,  one  of  the  most  prominent  Jesuits 
in  France.  The  Clericals  and  anti-Semites, 
therefore,  joined  forces,  and,  by  calling  the 
Dreyfus  agitation  an  attack  on  the  honor  of 
the  army  and  a  play  into  the  hands  of  Ger- 
many, they  won  over  all  the  jingoes  and  former 
Boulangists,  who  formed  the  new  party  of 
Nationalists.  This  was  the  so-called  alliance 
of  "the  sword  and  the  holy-water  sprinkler'* 


126      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

(le  sabre  ei  le  goupillon).  Above  all,  certain  re- 
ligious associations,  particularly  the  Assump- 
tionists,  under  the  name  of  religion,  organized 
a  campaign  of  slander  and  abuse  against  all 
who  ventured  to  speak  for  Dreyfus.  By  a 
ludicrous  counter-play  the  scoundrel  Ester- 
hazy  had  defenders  as  an  injured  innocent,  the 
more  so  that  Henry  and  the  clique  at  the  War 
Office  found  it  to  their  interest  to  support  him. 
Matters  reached  a  crisis  when,  on  Novem- 
ber 15,  1897,  Mathieu  Dreyfus  denounced 
Esterhazy  to  the  Minister  of  War  as  author  of 
the  bordereau  and  as  guilty  of  the  treason  for 
which  his  brother  had  been  condemned.  This 
was  partly  a  tactical  mistake,  because,  even  if 
Esterhazy  were  proved  to  have  written  the 
bordereau,  it  would  still  be  necessary  to  show 
him  guilty  of  actual  treason.  It  made  it  pos- 
sible to  swerve  the  discussion  from  the  con- 
viction of  Dreyfus  as  a  res  adjudicata  (chose 
Jugee)  to  vague  charges  against  Esterhazy. 
The  later  called  for  a  vindication,  he  was  tri- 
umphantly acquitted  by  a  court-martial  early 
in  January,  1898,  and  Picquart  was  put  under 
arrest  on  various  charges  of  indiscipline  in  con- 
nection with  the  whole  affair. 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  F^LIX  FAURE    127 

Few  and  far  between  as  they  now  seemed, 
the  lovers  of  justice  were  still  to  be  counted 
with.  They  consisted  at  first  of  a  small  num- 
ber of  much-derided  intelleduels,  scholars  and 
trained  thinkers,  who  used  their  judgment  and 
not  their  prejudices.  One  of  these  was  the 
famous  novelist  Emile  Zola,  who,  to  keep  the 
case  under  discussion,  published  in  the  Aurore 
on  January  13,  a  few  days  after  Esterhazy's 
acquittal,  his  famous  letter,  J'accuse.  In 
this  article  Zola  denounced  the  guilty  mach- 
inations of  Dreyfus's  adversaries  seriatim^ 
blamed  the  Dreyfus  court-martial  for  convict- 
ing on  secret  evidence  and  the  Esterhazy  court 
for  acquitting  a  guilty  man  in  obedience  to  or- 
ders. Zola  was  not  in  possession  of  all  the  facts, 
since  his  precise  aim  was  to  have  them  brought 
out,  and  in  his  charges  against  the  Esterhazy 
court  he  was  technically  and  legally  at  fault. 
But  he  courted  prosecution  and  got  it. 

On  February  7  Zola  was  brought  to  trial. 
The  crafty  authorities  eliminated  all  references 
to  the  trial  of  1894  as  a  chose  jugee  and  prose- 
cuted Zola  for  having  declared  that  Esterhazy 
was  acquitted  by  order.  Their  tool,  the  pre- 
siding magistrate  Delegorgue,  seconded  their 


128      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

efforts  by  ruling  out  every  question  which 
might  throw  hght  on  the  Dreyfus  case,  in  spite 
of  the  attempts  of  Zola's  chief  lawyer  Labori. 
Party  passion  was  at  its  height,  hired  gangs  of 
men  were  posted  about  the  court-house  to  hoot 
and  attack  the  Dreyfusites,  members  of  the 
General  Staff  appeared  in  full  uniform  to  inter- 
rupt the  trial  and  bulldoze  the  jury  by  myste- 
rious hints  of  war  with  Germany.  Finally  Zola 
was  condemned  to  fine  and  imprisonment. 
At  this  trial  for  the  first  time  mention  was 
mysteriously  but  openly  made  of  a  new  docu- 
ment, understood  to  be  a  communication  al- 
luding to  Dreyfus  between  the  Italian  and  the 
German  military  attaches  at  Paris.  Zola  ap- 
pealed, the  higher  court  broke  the  verdict  on 
the  ground  that  the  prosecution  should  have 
been  instigated  by  the  offended  court-martial 
and  not  by  the  Government,  he  was  brought  to 
trial  again  on  a  change  of  venue  at  Versailles, 
was  unsuccessful  in  interposing  obstacles  to  an 
inevitable  condemnation,  and  so  fled  to  Eng- 
land (July). 

Meanwhile,  public  opinion  was  becoming 
yet  more  violently  excited.  France  was  divided 
into  two  great  camps,  the  line  of  cleavage  often 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  FfiLIX  FAURE    129 

estranging  the  closest  friends  and  relatives.  On 
the  one  side  was  a  vast  majority  consisting 
of  the  Clericals,  the  jingoes  or  Nationalists, 
the  anti-Semites,  and  the  unreflecting  mass  of 
the  population.  On  the  other  were  ranged  the 
''intellectuals,"  the  Socialists  who  were  now 
rallying  to  the  cause  of  tolerance,  the  Jews,  and 
the  few  French  Protestants.  The  League  of  the 
Rights  of  Man  stood  opposed  to  the  associa- 
tion of  the  Patrie  Fran^aise.  In  the  midst  of 
this  turmoil  were  held  the  elections  of  May, 
1898,  for  the  renewal  of  the  Chamber  of  Depu- 
ties. The  political  coloring  of  the  new  body  was 
not  sensibly  changed,  but  the  open  Dreyfus- 
ites  were  all  excluded.  The  Moderates  now 
generally  dubbed  themselves  "Progressists.'* 
None  the  less  at  the  first  session  the  now  long- 
lived  Meline  Cabinet  resigned  after  a  vote  re- 
questing it  to  govern  with  fewer  concessions 
to  the  Right. 

The  next  Cabinet  was  Radical,  headed  by 
Henri  Brisson.  His  mind  was  not  yet  definitely 
made  up  on  the  matter  of  revision,  and  he  gave 
concessions  to  the  Nationalists  by  appointing 
as  Minister  of  War  Godefroy  Cavaignac.  This 
headstrong  personage,  proud  of  an  historic 


i3o      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

name,  undertook  to  manage  the  Cabinet  and  to 
prove  once  for  all  to  the  Chamber  the  guilt  of 
Dreyfus.  In  his  speech  he  relied  mainly  on  the 
letter  mentioned  at  the  Zola  trial  as  written  by 
the  Italian  to  the  German  attache. 

Once  more  the  Dreyfus  affair  seemed  per- 
manently settled,  and  once  more  the  con- 
trary proved  to  be  the  case.  In  August  Cav- 
aignac  discovered,  to  his  dismay,  that  the 
document  he  had  sent  to  the  Chamber,  with 
such  emphasis  on  its  importance,  was  an  out- 
and-out  forgery  of  Henry.  The  latter  was  put 
under  arrest  and  committed  suicide.  Discus- 
sion followed  between  Brisson,  now  converted 
to  revision,  and  Cavaignac,  still  too  stubborn 
to  change  his  mind  with  regard  to  Dreyfus, 
in  spite  of  his  recent  discovery.  Cavaignac 
resigned  as  Minister  of  War,  was  replaced  by 
General  Zurlinden,  who  withdrew  in  a  few 
days  and  was  in  turn  succeeded  by  another 
general,  Chanoine,  thought  to  be  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  Cabinet.  He  in  turn  played  his 
colleagues  false  and  resigned  unexpectedly 
during  a  meeting  of  the  Chamber.  Weakened 
by  these  successive  blows  the  Brisson  Cabinet 
itself  had  to  resign,  but  its  leader  had  now 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  F^LIX  FAURE    i3i 

forwarded  to  the  supreme  court  of  the  land,  the 
Cour  de  Cassation,  the  petition  of  Dreyfus's 
wife  for  a  revision  of  his  sentence.  The  first 
step  had  at  last  been  taken.  The  Criminal 
Chamber  accepted  the  request  and  proceeded 
to  a  further  detailed  investigation. 

The  Brisson  Ministry  was  followed  by  a  third 
Cabinet  of  the  unabashed  Dupuy.  It  became 
evident  that  the  Cruninal  Chamber  of  the 
Court  of  Cassation  was  inclining  to  decide  on 
revision.  Wishing  to  play  to  both  sides  and, 
yielding  in  this  case  to  the  anti-revisionists, 
early  in  1899  Dupuy  brought  in  a  bill  to  take 
the  Dreyfus  affair  away  from  the  Criminal 
Chamber  in  the  very  midst  of  its  deliberations 
and  submit  it  to  the  Court  as  a  whole,  where 
it  was  hoped  a  majority  of  judges  would  reject 
revision.  Between  the  dates  of  the  passage 
of  this  bill  by  the  Chamber  and  by  the 
Senate,  President  Faure  died  suddenly  and 
under  mysterious  circumstances  on  February 
16,  1899.  He  had  opposed  revision  and  his 
death,  attributed  to  apoplexy,  was  a  gain  to  the 
revisionists  who  were  accused  by  his  friends  of 
having  caused  his  murder.  On  the  other  hand, 
stories,  which  it  is  unnecessary  to  repeat  here, 


i32      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

found  an  echo  some  years  later  in  the  scandals 
repeated  at  the  sensational  trial  of  Madame 
Steinheil. 

During  the  turmoil  over  the  Dreyfus  affair, 
France  underwent  a  humiliating  experience 
with  England.  The  colonial  rivalry  of  the  two 
countries  had  of  late  gone  on  unchecked, 
embittered  as  it  had  been  by  the  ousting  of 
France  from  the  Suez  Canal  and  Egypt.  To 
many  Frenchmen  "Perfidious  Albion"  was,  far 
more  than  Germany,  the  secular  foe.  In  1896 
a  French  expedition  under  Captain  Marchand 
was  sent  from  the  Congo  in  the  direction  of  the 
Nile.  The  English  afterwards  argued  that  its 
purpose  was  to  cut  their  sphere  of  influence  and 
hinder  the  Cape-to-Cairo  project;  the  French 
declared  they  merely  wished  to  occupy  a  post 
which  should  afford  a  basis  for  general  diplo- 
matic negotiations  for  the  partition  of  Africa. 
The  mission  was  numerically  insufficient;  it 
struggled  painfully  for  two  years  through  the 
heart  of  the  continent,  and  at  last  the  small 
handful  of  intrepid  Frenchmen  established 
themselves  at  Fashoda  on  the  upper  waters 
of  the  Nile  in  July,  1898.  At  once  General 
Kitchener  arriving  from  the  victory  of  Omdur- 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  FfiLIX  FAURE    i33 

man  appeared  on  the  scene  to  occupy  Fashoda 
for  the  Egyptian  Government.  England  as- 
sumed a  viciously  aggressive  attitude  and, 
under  veiled  threats  of  war,  France  was  obliged 
to  recall  Marchand  (November  4).  The  out- 
burst of  fury  in  France  against  England  at  this 
humiliation  was  tremendous.  No  sane  man 
would  have  then  ventured  to  predict  that  in  a 
few  years  the  hands  of  the  two  countries  would 
be  joined  in  the  clasp  of  the  Entente  cordiale. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  EMILE  LOUBET 
February,  1899,  to  February,  1906 

The  successor  of  Felix  Faure,  Emile  Loubet, 
was  elected  on  February  18,  1899,  by  a  good 
majority  over  Jules  Meline,  the  candidate  of 
the  larger  number  of  the  Moderates  or  "Pro- 
gressists" and  of  the  Conservatives.  Loubet 
was  himself  a  man  of  Moderate  views,  but  he 
was  thought  to  favor  a  revision  of  the  Dreyfus 
case.  Among  the  charges  of  his  enemies  was 
that,  as  Minister  of  the  Interior  in  1892,  he 
had  held,  but  had  kept  secret,  the  famous  list 
of  the  "Hundred  and  Four"  and  had  prevented 
the  seizure  of  the  papers  of  Baron  de  Reinach 
and  the  arrest  of  Arton.  So  Loubet's  return  to 
Paris  from  Versailles  was  amid  hostile  cries  of 
"Loubet-Panama"  and  "Vive  I'armee!" 

On  February  23,  after  the  state  funeral  of 
President  Faure,  a  detachment  of  troops  led 
by  General  Roget  was  returning  to  its  bar- 
racks in  an  outlying  quarter  of  Paris.  Sud- 
denly the  Nationalist  and  quondam  Boulangist 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  LOUBET    i35 

Paul  Deroulede,  now  chief  of  the  Ligue  des  Pa- 
triotes  and  vigorous  opponent  of  parUamen- 
tary  government,  though  a  Deputy  himself, 
rushed  to  General  Roget,  and,  grasping  the 
bridle  of  his  horse,  tried  to  persuade  him  to 
lead  his  troops  to  the  Elysee,  the  presidential 
residence,  and  overthrow  the  Government. 
Deroulede  had  expected  to  encounter  General 
de  Pellieux,  a  more  amenable  leader,  and  one 
of  the  noisy  generals  at  the  Zola  trial.  General 
Roget,  who  had  been  substituted  at  the  last 
moment,  refused  to  accede  and  caused  the 
arrest  of  Deroulede,  with  his  fellow  Deputy 
and  conspirator  Marcel  Habert. 

Meanwhile  the  Dreyfus  case  had  been  taken 
out  of  the  hands  of  the  Criminal  Chamber  and 
given  to  the  whole  Court.  To  the  dismay  of 
the  anti-Dreyfusites  the  Court,  as  a  body,  an- 
nulled, on  June  3,  the  verdict  of  the  court- 
martial  of  1894,  and  decided  that  Dreyfus 
should  appear  before  a  second  military  court 
at  Rennes  for  another  trial. 

Thus  party  antagonisms  were  becoming 
more  and  more  acute.  In  addition  Dupuy,  the 
head  of  the  Cabinet,  seemed  to  be  spiting  the 
new  President.  On  the  day  after  the  verdict 


i36      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

of  the  Cour  de  Cassation,  at  the  Auteuil  races, 
President  Loubet  was  roughly  jostled  by  a 
band  of  fashionable  young  Royalists  and  struck 
with  a  cane  by  Baron  de  Christiani.  A  week 
later,  at  the  Grand  Prize  races  at  Longchamps, 
on  June  11,  Dupuy,  as  though  to  atone  for  his 
previous  carelessness,  brought  out  a  large 
array  of  troops,  so  obviously  over-numerous  as 
to  cause  new  disturbances  among  the  crowd 
desirous  of  manifesting  its  sympathy  with  the 
chief  magistrate.  More  arrests  were  made  and, 
at  the  meeting  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  the 
next  day,  the  Cabinet  was  overthrown  by  an 
adverse  vote. 

The  ministerial  crisis  brought  about  by  the 
fall  of  Dupuy  was  as  important  as  any  under 
the  Third  Republic  because  of  its  consequences 
in  the  redistribution  of  parties.  For  about  ten 
days  President  Loubet  was  unable  to  fmd  a 
leader  who  could  in  turn  form  a  cabinet.  At 
last  public  opinion  was  astounded  by  the  mas- 
terly combination  made  by  Waldeck-Rousseau, 
Gambetta's  former  lieutenant,  who  of  recent 
years  had  kept  somewhat  aloof  from  active 
participation  in  politics.  He  brought  together 
a  ministry  of  ''defense  republicaine,"  which  its 


RENE   WALDECK-ROUSSEAU 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  LOUBET    iSt 

opponents,  however,  called  a  cabinet  for  the 
"Uquidation"  of  the  Dreyfus  case.  The  old 
policy  of  "Republican  concentration"  of  Op- 
portunists and  Radicals  was  given  up  in 
favor  of  a  mass  formation  of  the  various 
advanced  groups  of  the  Left,  including  the 
Socialists. 

Waldeck-Rousseau  was  a  Moderate  Repub- 
lican, whose  legal  practice  of  recent  years  had 
been  mainly  that  of  a  corporation  lawyer,  but 
he  was  a  cool-headed  Opportunist.  He  real- 
ized the  ill-success  of  the  policy  of  the  *' esprit 
nouveau,"  and  saw  the  necessity  of  making 
advances  to  the  Socialists,  who  more  and  more 
held  the  balance  of  power.  He  succeeded  in 
uniting  in  his  Cabinet  Moderates  like  himself, 
Radicals,  and,  for  the  first  time  in  French  par- 
liamentary history,  an  out-and-out  Socialist, 
Alexandre  Millerand,  author  of  the  famous 
"Programme  of  Saint-Mande"  of  1896,  or 
declaration  of  faith  of  Socialism.  Still  more  as- 
tounding was  the  presence  as  Minister  of  War, 
in  the  same  Cabinet  with  Millerand,  of  Gen- 
eral de  Galliffet,  a  bluff,  outspoken,  and  dash- 
ing aristocratic  officer,  a  favorite  with  the 
whole  army,  but  fiercely  hated  by  the  prole- 


i38      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

tariat  because  of  his  part  in  the  repression  of 
the  Commune. 

The  first  days  of  the  new  Cabinet  were 
stormy  and  its  outlook  was  dubious.  The  task 
of  reconciUng  such  divergent  elements,  even 
against  a  common  foe,  seemed  an  impossibil- 
ity, until  at  last  the  Radicals  under  Brisson 
swung  into  line.  Such  was  the  beginning  of  a 
Republican  grouping  which  later,  during  the 
anti-Clerical  campaign,  was  known  as  le  Bloc, 
the  united  band  of  Republicans. 

The  Waldeck-Rousseau  Ministry  took  up 
the  Dreyfus  case  with  a  queer  combination  of 
courage  and  weakness.  Insubordinate  army 
officers  were  summarily  punished  for  injudi- 
cious remarks,  but  in  order  to  appear  neutral 
and  to  avoid  criticism,  the  Cabinet  held  so 
much  aloof  that  the  anti-Dreyfusites  were  able 
to  bring  their  full  forces  to  bear  on  the  court- 
martial.  For  a  month  at  Rennes,  beginning 
August  7,  an  extraordinary  trial  was  carried  on 
before  the  eyes  of  an  impassioned  France  and 
angry  onlooking  nations.  Witnesses  had  full 
latitude  to  indulge  in  rhetorical  addresses  and 
air  their  prejudices;  military  officers  like  Roget, 
who  had  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  original 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  LOUBET    189 

trial,  were  allowed  to  take  up  the  time  of  the 
court.  Galliffet,  though  convinced  of  the  inno- 
cence of  Dreyfus,  was  unwilling  to  exert  as 
much  pressure  as  his  colleagues  in  the  Cabinet 
desired.  It  soon  became  evident  that,  regard- 
less of  the  question  involved,  the  issue  was  one 
between  an  insignificant  Jewish  officer  on  the 
one  hand  and  General  Mercier,  ex-Minister  of 
War,  on  the  other.  The  judges  were  army  offi- 
cers full  of  caste-feeling  and  timorous  of  offend- 
ing their  superiors.  Thus,  on  September  9, 
Dreyfus  was  a  second  time  convicted,  though 
with  extenuating  circumstances,  by  a  vote  of 
5  to  2,  and  condemned  to  ten  years'  detention. 
This  verdict  was  a  travesty  of  justice,  and  a 
punishment  fitting  no  crime  of  Dreyfus,  since 
he  was  either  innocent  or  guilty  of  treason  be- 
yond extenuation.  The  Ministry,  perhaps  re- 
gretting too  late  its  excessive  inertia,  immedi- 
ately caused  the  President  to  pardon  Dreyfus, 
partly  on  the  ostensible  grounds  that  Dreyfus 
by  his  previous  harsher  condemnation  had  al- 
ready purged  his  new  one.  This  act  of  clem- 
ency was,  however,  not  a  legal  clearing  of  the 
victim's  honor,  which  was  achieved  only  some 
years  later. 


i4o      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

During  the  turmoil  of  the  Dreyfus  affair  the 
Cabinet  was,  it  seemed  to  many,  unduly  anx- 
ious over  certain  conspirators  against  the 
Republic.  The  symptoms  of  insubordination 
in  high  ranks  in  the  army,  linked  with  the 
Clerical  manoeuvres,  had  encouraged  the  other 
foes  of  the  Republic  (spurred  on  by  the  Royal- 
ists), whether  sincere  opponents  of  the  parlia- 
mentary regime  like  Paul  Deroulede,  or  venal 
agitators  such  as  the  anti-Semitic  Jules  Guerin. 
But,  certainly,  above  all  objectionable  were  the 
proceedings  of  the  Assumptionists,  a  religious 
order  which  had  amassed  enormous  wealth, 
and  which,  by  the  various  local  editions  of  its 
paper  la  Croix,  had  organized  a  campaign  of 
venomous  slander  and  abuse  of  the  Republic 
and  its  leaders. 

The  Government,  having  got  wind  of  a  proj- 
ect of  the  conspirators  to  seize  the  reins  of 
power  during  the  Rennes  court-martial,  antici- 
pated the  act  by  wholesale  arrests  on  August 
12.  Jules  Guerin  barricaded  himself  with  some 
friends  in  a  house  in  the  rue  de  Chabrol  in 
Paris,  and  defied  the  Government  to  arrest 
him  without  perpetrating  murder.  The  gro- 
tesque incident  of  the  "Fort  Chabrol"  came  to 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  LOUBET    i4i 

an  end  after  thirty-seven  days  when  the  author- 
ities had  surrounded  the  house  with  troops 
to  starve  Guerin  out  and  stopped  the  drains. 

In  November  a  motley  array  of  conspirators, 
ranging  from  Andre  Buffet,  representative  of 
the  pretender  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  to  butchers 
from  the  slaughter-houses  of  La  Villette,  were 
brought  to  trial  before  the  Senate  acting  as  a 
High  Court  of  Justice,  on  the  charge  of  con- 
spiracy against  the  State.  After  a  long  trial 
lasting  nearly  two  months,  during  which  the 
prisoners  outdid  each  other  in  declamatory 
insults  to  their  enemies,  the  majority  were 
acquitted.  Paul  Deroulede  and  Andre  Buffet 
were  condemned  to  banishment  for  ten  years 
and  Jules  Guerin  to  imprisonment  for  the  same 
term.  Two  others.  Marcel  Habert  and  the 
comte  de  Lur-Saluces,  who  had  taken  flight, 
gave  themselves  up  later  and  were  condemned 
in  1900  and  1901,  respectively,  amid  a  public 
indifference  which  was  far  from  their  liking. 

Thus  the  year  1899  had  proved  itself  one  of 
the  most  dramatically  eventful  in  the  history 
of  the  Republic.  It  was  also  to  be  one  of  the 
most  significant  in  its  consequences.  For  the 
new  grouping  of  mutually  jealous  factions 


i42      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

against  a  common  danger  had,  in  spite  of  the 
fiasco  of  the  second  Dreyfus  case,  shown  a  way 
to  victory.  And  exasperation  against  the  in- 
trigues of  the  Clericals  and  the  army  officers 
was  going  to  turn  the  former  toleration  of  the 
"esprit  nouveau"  into  active  persecution,  espe- 
cially as  the  Socialists  and  Radicals  formed  the 
majority  of  the  new  combination. 

In  November,  1899,  Waldeck-Rousseau  laid 
before  Parliament  an  Associations  bill  to  regu- 
late the  organization  of  societies,  which  was 
intended  indirectly  to  control  religious  bodies. 
The  leniency  of  the  Government  hitherto  and 
the  commercial  energy  of  many  religious  or- 
ders, manufacturers  of  articles  varying  from 
chartreuse  to  hair-restorers  and  dentifrice,  had 
enabled  them  to  amass  enormous  sums  held 
in  mortmain.  The  power  of  this  money  was 
great  in  politics  and  the  anti-Clericals  cast 
envious  eyes  on  these  vague  and  mysterious 
fortunes.  There  were  in  France  at  the  time 
almost  seven  hundred  unauthorized  "  congrega- 
tions." Against  the  Assumptionists  in  particu- 
lar the  Government  took  direct  measures  early 
in  1900,  such  as  legal  perquisitions,  arrests, 
and  prosecution  as  an  illegal  association. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  LOUBET    i43 

The  campaign  went  on  through  the  year 
1900,  the  Exposition  of  that  year  helping  to 
act  as  a  partial  truce.  The  expedition  of  the 
Allies  to  China  to  put  down  the  Boxer  rebellion 
also  diverted  attention.  Waldeck-Rousseau 
was  sincerely  desirous  of  bringing  about  a 
pacification  of  feeling  in  the  country,  and  he 
felt  bitter  practically  only  against  the  Jesuits 
and  the  Assumptionists.  He  even  succeeded  in 
carrjdng  through  Parliament  an  amnesty  bill 
dealing  with  the  Dreyfus  case  and  destined  to 
quash  all  criminal  actions  in  process,  whether 
of  Dreyfusites  or  anti-Dreyfusites.  The  former 
fought  the  project  vigorously  on  the  ground 
that  it  opposed  a  new  obstacle  to  ultimate  dis- 
covery of  the  truth,  but  they  were  unsuccess- 
ful. Waldeck-Rousseau  remained  at  heart, 
none  the  less,  a  believer  in  Dreyfus's  innocence 
and  in  spite  of  his  amnesty  project,  he  could 
not  always  hide  his  true  feelings.  In  conse- 
quence he  offended  his  Minister  of  War,  Gen- 
eral de  Galliffet,  Dreyfusite  as  well,  but  tired 
of  the  struggle  now  that  the  Rennes  trial  had 
made  the  task  of  rehabilitation  apparently 
hopeless.  Galliffet  resigned  his  office  and  was 
succeeded  by  General  Andre,  a  politician  sol- 


i44      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

dier,  who  started  out  at  once  to  purge  the  army 
drastically  of  its  Clericalism. 

Waldeck-Rousseau's  Associations  project 
was  fairly  mild.  He  had  no  desire  for  a  violent 
break  with  the  Vatican,  and  the  wily  and  diplo- 
matic Leo  XIII  probably  so  understood  well 
enough  in  spite  of  his  protests.  But,  as  debate 
and  discussion  went  on,  the  measure  became 
more  severe.  Waldeck-Rousseau  had  origi- 
nally planned  a  bill  dealing  with  authorization 
and  incorporation  of  associations  in  general, 
in  which  he  refrained  from  any  specific  allusion 
to  religious  bodies  of  monks  and  nuns,  thereby 
assimilating  them  with  other  groups.  As  fi- 
nally voted  and  promulgated  in  July,  1901,  the 
law  made  provisions  for  the  privilege  of  asso- 
ciation in  general,  but  made  the  important 
additional  stipulations  that  no  religious  order 
or  "congregation"  could  be  formed  without 
specific  authorization  by  law,  that  a  religious 
order  could  be  dissolved  by  ministerial  decree, 
and  that  no  one  belonging  to  an  unauthorized 
order  could  direct  personally,  or  by  proxy,  an 
educational  establishment,  or  even  teach  in 
one.  Thus  the  enemies  of  the  lay  Republic 
who,  under  cover  of  the  "esprit  nouveau,"  and 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  LOUBET    i45 

by  years  of  manipulation  of  the  feeding  sources 
of  army  and  navy  officers,  had  hoped  to  grasp 
power,  and  had  made  a  supreme  effort  at  the 
time  of  the  Dreyfus  agitation,  now  saw  them- 
selves thwarted,  and  faced  the  prospect  of 
severer  treatment. 

Matters  had  progressed  even  further  than 
Waldeck-Rousseau  himself  perhaps  desired.  In 
the  spring  of  1902,  new  legislative  elections 
took  place  for  the  renewal  of  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies.  The  policy  of  the  Waldeck-Rousseau 
Ministry  was  endorsed  by  a  sound  majority, 
and  yet  at  this  moment  of  triumph,  after  the 
longest  rule  as  Prime  Minister  of  any  hith- 
erto in  the  history  of  the  Republic,  Waldeck- 
Rousseau  resigned  his  post  without  an  adverse 
vote.  Undoubtedly  the  state  of  his  personal 
health  was  partly  responsible  for  his  departure 
from  office  and  he  was  destined  not  to  live 
beyond  1904.  The  last  important  events  of  his 
administration  were  a  visit  of  the  Czar  to 
France  and  a  return  visit  of  President  Loubet 
to  Russia. 

Waldeck-Rousseau's  successor  as  Prime 
Minister  was  Emile  Combes,  a  strong  foe  of 
the  Church.  Combes  had  himself  been  a  former 


i46      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

theological  student  and  had,  in  his  youth,  writ- 
ten a  thesis  on  the  philosophy  of  St.  Thomas 
Aquinas.  He  now  had  all  the  vindictiveness  of 
one  who  burns  what  he  formerly  worshipped. 
Encouraged  by  the  recent  elections,  he  turned 
more  and  more  against  the  Vatican  and  im- 
pelled by  the  more  violent  members  of  the 
Bloc,  he  drifted  toward  the  rupture  which  his 
predecessor  had  tried  to  avoid.  A  committee 
of  the  different  groups  supporting  the  Cabinet, 
called  the  "delegation  des  gauches,"  had  in 
time  been  instituted  to  formulate  policies  with 
the  Prime  Minister,  who  often  had  to  obey  it 
instead  of  guiding.  Waldeck-Rousseau  had 
intended  not  to  apply  his  law  retroactively. 
He  had  planned  to  spare  educational  establish- 
ments already  in  existence  before  July,  1901, 
when  his  measure  went  into  operation,  and 
had  winked  at  lack  of  compliance  on  the  part 
of  many  others.  Combes  applied  the  letter  of 
the  law  ruthlessly.  Amid  public  protestations 
and  disturbances  he  closed  a  large  number  of 
these  unauthorized  schools;  firstly,  those  which 
had  actually  been  opened  without  permission 
since  the  promulgation  of  the  law,  then  the 
many  schools  which  were  older  than  the  law. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  LOUBET    i/i? 

In  so  doing  he  was  called  a  persecutor,  because 
the  directors  of  the  schools  declared  that  they 
had  allowed  the  time  limit  of  application  for 
authorization  to  go  by,  only  through  the  under- 
standing with  the  previous  Administration  that 
they  were  not  to  be  interfered  with.  Now  they 
could  not  help  themselves. 

Emboldened  by  success  Combes  next  took 
up  the  applications  of  the  congregations  which 
had  duly  followed  the  law  and  were  seeking 
authorization.  By  decree,  as  was  his  right,  he 
first  promptly  closed  unlicensed  schools  of 
recognized  orders.  Then  came  the  applica- 
tions of  orders  seeking  authorization.  Legal 
procedure  demanded  laws  to  reject  as  well  as 
laws  to  accept  applications.  A  recommenda- 
tion/GZ707*ec?  by  the  Government  but  rejected  by 
the  Chamber  of  Deputies  would  not  go  before 
the  Senate.  On  the  other  hand,  an  unfavorable 
opinion  of  the  Government  ratified  by  the 
House  would  still  have  to  go  before  the  Senate. 
A  way  would  thus  be  open  for  prolonged 
chicanery. 

Combes  cut  matters  short.  He  lumped  fifty- 
four  individual  applications  into  three  batches, 
teaching  orders,  preaching  orders,  and  the  com- 


i48      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

mercial  order  of  the  Chartreux,  manufacturers 
of  the  liqueur  called  "chartreuse."  Then,  pre- 
senting these  batches  of  applications  collec- 
tively instead  of  individually  to  the  Chamber, 
he  caused  their  rejection  and  proceeded  to 
dissolve  the  orders  and  close  their  fifteen  hun- 
dred establishments.  Through  the  spring  of 
1903  there  were  turbulent  scenes  in  conse- 
quence in  various  parts  of  France,  the  monks 
trying  sometimes  passive  resistance,  some- 
times actual  violence.  In  the  reactionary  dis- 
tricts the  population  attempted  to  stir  up  riots. 
Occasionally,  even,  a  military  officer  whose 
duty  it  was  to  evict  the  monks  refused  to  obey 
orders.  But,  nothing  daunted.  Combes  went 
on,  with  the  support  of  the  Chambers,  to  reject 
a  large  mass  of  applications  from  teaching 
orders  of  women.  Even  Waldeck-Rousseau 
was  led  in  time  publicly  to  declare  that  he  had 
never  contemplated  the  transformation  of  his 
Associations  law  of  1901  from  a  measure  of 
regulation  to  one  of  exclusion,  nor  the  assump- 
tion by  the  State  of  expensive  educational 
charges  hitherto  carried  on  by  religious  orders. 
At  last  the  law  of  July,  1904,  put  a  complete 
end  to  all  kinds  of  instruction  by  religious 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  LOUBET    i/ig 

bodies,  thereby  insuring,  after  a  lapse  of  time 
for  liquidation,  the  disappearance  of  all  teach- 
ing orders. 

These  measures  against  the  religious  groups 
were,  in  spite  of  outcries  of  persecution,  after 
all  matters  of  internal  administration.  But, 
meanwhile,  causes  for  direct  dissension  with 
the  Vatican  had  arisen  over  questions  involv- 
ing the  Concordat  regulating  the  relations  of 
Church  and  State. 

The  first  dispute  was  about  the  method  of 
appointing  bishops.  The  Concordat  gave  to 
the  Government  the  right  of  appointing  bish- 
ops, subject  to  the  papal  ratification  of  the 
appointee's  moral  and  theological  qualifica- 
tions. During  the  Third  Republic  the  habit 
had  grown  up  of  mutual  consultation  before 
appointments  were  made,  a  practice  which  led 
the  Vatican  to  assume  that  its  initial  influence 
was  as  great  as  that  of  the  Government,  and 
finally  to  make  use  of  the  formula  nobis  nomi- 
naviU  or  nominaverit,  as  though  the  Govern- 
ment merely  proposed  a  candidate  subject  to 
the  Vatican's  free  right  to  accept  or  to  reject. 
The  keen-scented  Combes  took  an  early  oppor- 
tunity to  raise  this  issue  by  making  certain 


i5o      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

appointments  to  bishoprics  without  previously 
consulting  the  Vatican.  In  the  midst  of  the 
discussions  Leo  XIII  died  in  July,  1903,  and 
was  succeeded  by  Pius  X,  whose  character  was 
utterly  different  from  that  of  his  predecessor. 
His  primitive  faith  saw  in  France  the  home  of 
heretics  like  the  Modernist,  the  Abbe  Loisy; 
and  his  Secretary  of  State,  the  ultramontane 
Cardinal  Merry  del  Val,  was  as  hostile  to 
France,  as  his  predecessor  Cardinal  Rampolla 
had,  on  the  whole,  been  well  disposed  to  the 
*' eldest  daughter  of  the  Church."  Between 
Merry  del  Val  and  Combes  no  agreement  was 
possible.  So  matters  went  from  bad  to  worse. 
In  the  autumn  of  1903  the  King  of  Italy 
made  a  visit  to  France,  and  in  1904  it  was 
deemed  advisable  to  have  President  Loubet  re- 
turn this  visit  to  emphasize  the  new  cordiality 
between  France  and  Italy,  the  settlement  of 
long-standing  difficulties,  and  to  cultivate  as 
much  as  possible  one  member  of  the  Triple 
Alliance.  The  Pope  protested  violently  against 
this  visit  to  his  enemy  in  Rome  and  made  it 
clear  that  he  would  refuse  to  see  Loubet.  The 
diplomatic  crisis  became  acute  and  the  French 
Ambassador  to  the  Vatican  was  recalled. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  LOUBET    i5i 

Soon  came  a  complete  rupture  over  the 
treatment  by  the  pontifical  authorities  of  two 
French  bishops,  Geay  of  Laval  and  Le  Nordez 
of  Dijon.  They  had  shown  themselves  loyal 
Republicans  and  had  become  the  object  of 
attack  in  their  own  dioceses  until  personal 
scandals  were  imagined  or  raked  up  against 
them.  Combes  took  the  part  of  the  bishops 
and,  to  punish  the  Vatican  for  interfering  with 
the  French  prelates,  definitely  broke  off  diplo- 
matic relations  in  July,  1904,  withdrawing  even 
the  charge  d'affaires  who  had  been  left  after 
the  departure  of  the  ambassador. 

For  some  time,  plans  for  the  separation  of 
Church  and  State  had  been  under  discussion 
in  a  somewhat  academic  way  by  a  committee 
or  Commission  of  the  Chamber,  under  the  gen- 
eral guidance  of  Ferdinand  Buisson  and  Aris- 
tide  Briand.  The  latter  had  even  drawn  up  a 
preliminary  project.  But  Combes,  in  spite  of 
his  vehemence  in  words  against  the  Church, 
hesitated  to  involve  the  Ministry.  He  knew 
that  the  country  at  large  was  fully  satisfied 
with  the  maintenance  of  the  Concordat  and 
that  some  of  his  own  colleagues  in  the  Cabinet, 
as  well  as  Loubet,  preferred  not  to  disturb  it. 


i52      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

Suddenly  a  great  scandal  broke  out.  The 
enemies  of  the  Ministry  got  hold  of  the  fact 
that  General  Andre,  through  some  of  his  sub- 
ordinates in  the  War  Office,  was  carrying  on  a 
regular  system  of  espionage  upon  army  officers 
suspected  of  luke-warm  republicanism  or  of 
Clerical  sympathies,  and  was  using  as  spies 
members  of  Masonic  lodges  or  even  subordi- 
nate Masonic  army  officers  throughout  France.^ 
These  spies  had  filed  innumerable  notes  or 
memoranda  known  as  fiches,  containing  infor- 
mation, rumor,  or  scandal  concerning  the  per- 
sons involved,  their  families  and  intimacies. 
The  discovery  that  leading  members  of  the 
Cabinet  had  been  countenancing  methods  as 
reprehensible  as  those  of  the  worst  of  their 
opponents,  caused  an  uproar.  The  Cabinet 
seemed  on  the  point  of  being  overthrown  when 
one  of  its  enemies  did  it  a  great  service.  A  wild 
and  blatant  anti-Ministerialist  named  Syveton 
rushed  up  to  the  Minister  of  War  and  struck 
him  two  blows  in  the  face  during  a  meeting  of 
the  Chamber.  The  effect  of  this  deed  was  to 
cause  a  temporary  reaction  in  favor  of  the 

*  It  should  be  remembered  that,  in  France,  the  Freemasons 
are  an  anti-religious  political  quite  as  much  as  a  benevolent  order. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  LOUBET    i53 

Ministry,  but  also  to  draw  Combes  more  to  the 
Radicals,  and  he  promptly  brought  forward 
his  own  governmental  separation  plan,  which 
was  considerably  at  variance  with  the  Briand 
project.  The  respite  was,  however,  only  mo- 
mentary, and,  after  sacrificing  General  Andre, 
Combes  gave  up  the  struggle  and  resigned  in 
January,  1905,  without  being  actually  put  in 
the  minority. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  there  was  a  con- 
siderable deterioration  in  government  dur- 
ing the  regime  of  Combes.  In  attempting  to 
thwart  the  Clerical  Party  he  let  himself  lapse 
into  methods  as  objectionable  as  theirs.  His 
anti-clericalism  breathed  the  spirit  of  persecu- 
tion, as  much  as  did  the  intrigues  of  the  clergy 
during  the  early  days  of  the  Republic.  He 
transformed  Waldeck-Rousseau's  plans  for  the 
regulation  of  religious  orders  into  a  measure  of 
proscription.  He  countenanced  underhanded 
intrigues,  and  allowed  his  Minister  of  War  to 
undermine  army  discipline  by  his  methods  of 
political  espionage  almost  as  much  as  it  had 
been  undermined  in  the  days  of  the  supremacy 
of  the  Clericals.  The  concessions  of  the  Min- 
isters of  War  and  of  Marine  to  the  Socialists 


i54      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

and  pacifists  considerably  weakened  the  effi- 
ciency of  both  army  and  navy.  Combes's 
administration  was  pre-eminently  one  of  self- 
seeking  pohticians. 

Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  certain  very  praise- 
worthy achievements  may  be  registered  to  its 
credit.  One  of  these  was  the  act  of  General 
Andre,  in  1903,  instituting  a  new  private  in- 
vestigation of  the  Dreyfus  case.  It  resulted  in 
the  discovery  of  material  sufficient  to  justify  a 
new  demand  for  revision,  which  the  Gour  de 
Cassation  admitted  in  March,  1904.  Another 
achievement  was  the  rapprochement  with  Eng- 
land known  as  the  Entente  cordiale  or  friendly 
understanding,  which  following  the  new  amity 
with  Italy  greatly  strengthened  France  face- 
to-face  with  Germany.  The  Russian  alliance 
had  given  France  one  definite  European  ally, 
and  the  cordiality  with  Italy,  a  member  of 
the  Triple  Alliance,  cleared  the  situation  in 
the  Mediterranean  and  on  the  frontier  of  the 
Alps.  The  Entente  cordiale  was  engineered  by 
Edward  VII  as  a  result  of  his  visit  to  Paris  in 
1903.  The  accord  of  April,  1904,  was  really  due 
to  English  as  well  as  French  fear  of  German 
aggression.   It  Uquidated  all  the  old  conten- 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  LOUBET    i55 

tions  between  England  and  France,  one  of 
which,  the  French  Shore  Dispute  over  New- 
foundland fishing  rights,  dated  back  to  the 
Treaty  of  Utrecht  in  the  early  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. But,  above  all,  France  definitely  gave 
up  her  Egyptian  claims  in  return  for  freedom 
of  action  in  Morocco  guaranteed  by  England. 
For  France  was  anxious  to  add  Morocco  to  her 
African  sphere  of  influence.  A  secret  arrange- 
ment with  Spain  gave  that  country  reversion- 
ary claims  to  certain  parts  of  Morocco.  By  the 
agreement  with  England  the  bad  blood  caused 
by  the  Fashoda  incident  was  wiped  away,  a 
new  intimacy  sprang  up  between  "Perfidi- 
ous Albion"  and  "Froggy,"  and  through  the 
natural  drawing  together  of  England  and 
France's  ally  Russia,  the  Triple  Entente  came 
into  being  some  years  later,  which  was  destined 
to  face  Germany  and  Austria  in  the  Great 
European  War. 

Combes's  successor  as  Prime  Minister  was  a 
member  of  his  own  Cabinet,  Maurice  Rouvier. 
More  moderate  in  views  than  Combes,  he 
would  have  been  content  to  let  the  Separation 
bill  rest,  but  the  Radicals  were  in  the  saddle 
and  he  let  things  take  their  course.  The  dis- 


i56      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

cussions  over  the  project  went  on  through  most 
of  the  year  1905,  under  the  guidance  of  the 
Minister  of  Worship,  Bienvenu-Martin,  and 
particularly  of  Aristide  Briand,  the  rapporteur 
or  spokesman  for  the  Commission  in  the  Cham- 
ber. The  bill,  again  and  again  modified  in  a 
spirit  of  conciliation  and  leniency  under  the 
guidance  of  Briand,  finally  resulted,  as  pro- 
mulgated on  December  9,  in  a  sincere  effort 
for  a  compromise  between  different  views  on 
religion.  It  showed  a  desire,  since  Church  and 
State  were  to  be  divorced,  to  treat  the  former 
fairly.  Provision  was  made,  when  the  budget 
for  religious  purposes  should  be  suppressed, 
for  the  legal  inventory  of  ecclesiastical  prop- 
erty, the  pension  of  superannuated  clergy,  and 
the  formation  of  legal  corporations  to  insure 
public  worship  {associations  culiuelles).  It  must 
be  remembered  that  the  new  measure  applied 
quite  as  much  to  the  Protestants  and  to  the 
Jews  as  to  the  Catholics.  Before  the  separation 
the  Protestant  pastors  and  the  Jewish  rabbis 
were  maintained  by  the  State  no  less  than  the 
Catholic  clergy.  Their  numerical  insignificance 
made  them  of  little  importance  in  the  general 
combat  over  the  Clerical  question.  Nor  could 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  LOUBET    167 

they  fairly  be  accused  of  intrigue  against  the 
RepubUc. 

The  year  1905  is  noteworthy  for  two  other 
important  events.  One  was  the  reduction  of 
the  term  of  compulsory  military  service  from 
three  to  two  years.  This  measure  was  carried 
through  largely  under  the  auspices  of  General 
Andre  and  proved  an  over-dangerous  conces- 
sion to  the  anti-militarists  and  pacifists,  since 
it  was  destined  so  soon  to  be  repealed.  The 
other  was  the  sensational  diplomatic  dispute 
with  Germany  over  Morocco,  which  resulted 
at  first  for  France  in  a  worse  humiliation  than 
Fashoda. 

Germany  under  Bismarck  had  encouraged 
the  numerous  French  colonial  schemes,  as  a 
way  of  keeping  her  busy  abroad  and  of  divert- 
ing her  thoughts  from  Alsace-Lorraine.  But 
as  the  Empire  began  to  develop  its  Pan- 
Germanism  and  its  aspirations  to  world-power 
under  William  II,  it  grew  jealous  of  England 
and  France  and  of  their  arrangement  of  1904 
to  settle  the  interests  of  Morocco.  Forthwith 
Germany  began  to  intrigue  with  the  Sultan  of 
Morocco  against  the  French,  and  declared 
that,  as  it  had  not  been  officially  informed  of 


i58      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

the  agreements  between  England,  France,  and 
Spain,  it  intended  to  disregard  them.  The  de- 
feat of  Russia  by  Japan,  in  particular,  encour- 
aged Germany  to  feel  that  France,  deprived  of 
its  ally,  could  be  bullied  with  impunity.  On 
March  31,  Emperor  William  landed  at  Tangier 
and  proclaimed  that  his  visit  was  to  the  Sultan 
as  an  "independent  sovereign."  Germany  also 
called  for  the  convocation  of  an  international 
meeting  to  regulate  the  Moroccan  question. 
The  French  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs, 
Delcasse,  objected  to  the  thwarting  of  his 
plans,  but  because  of  the  deterioration  of  the 
army  and  navy  and  the  lack  of  hoped-for 
Russian  support,  Rouvier  was  obliged  under 
German  threats  to  drop  him  from  his  Cabinet 
and  to  agree  to  the  convocation  of  the  Confer- 
ence of  Algeciras.^ 

1  The  pro-German  position,  expressed  in  such  works  as  E.  D. 
Morel's  Morocco  in\  Diplomacy  (1912),  is  that  Sir  Edward  Grey 
and  M.  Delcasse  were  engaged  in  tricky  schemes  to  dispose  of 
Morocco  without  regard  for  German  interests;  that  Germany 
was  not  officially  notified  by  France  of  the  public  agreements 
with  England  (April,  1904)  and  with  Spain  (October,  igod);  that 
these  two  agreements  were  both  accompanied  by  secret  ones  which 
nullified  their  effect;  that  M.  Delcass6  resigned,  not  under  Ger- 
man pressure,  but  at  M.  Rouvier's  wish,  for  having  unduly  in- 
volved and  compromised  France. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  ARMAND  FALLIlfeRES 
February,  1906,  to  Februeiry,  iqiS 

The  international  conference  for  the  regula- 
tion of  the  Moroccan  question  met  at  Algeciras 
in  southern  Spain,  in  January,  1906.  Twelve 
powers  participated,  including  the  United 
States.  The  negotiations  were  prolonged  until 
the  end  of  March  owing  to  the  unconciliatory 
German  attitude,  and  resulted  in  an  arrange- 
ment which  the  Germans  looked  upon  as 
totally  unsatisfactory  to  themselves.  In  the 
shaping  of  the  general  results  the  United  States 
had  considerable  influence.  The  agreement 
put  out  of  discussion  the  sovereignty  of  the 
Sultan,  the  integrity  of  the  empire,  and  the 
principle  of  commercial  freedom,  and  was 
largely  devoted  to  the  question  of  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  state  bank  and  the  organization 
of  the  police  in  international  ports  of  entry.  In 
the  bank  France  was  to  have  special  privileges, 
and  the  police  was  to  be  under  the  supervision 
of  France  and  Spain.  Germany  was  eliminated. 


i6o      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

In  the  midst  of  the  uncertainty  over  the 
outcome  of  the  Conference  two  important 
events  took  place  in  France,  the  second  of 
which  came  near  seriously  weakening  the 
French  position.  These  were  the  election  of  a 
successor  to  President  Loubet  and  the  down- 
fall of  the  Rouvier  Ministry. 

M.  Loubet's  term  expired  in  February  and 
he  did  not  desire  re-election.  The  two  chief 
candidates  were  Armand  Fallieres  and  Paul 
Doumer.  M.  Fallieres  was  an  easy-going,  good- 
natured,  and  well-meaning  but  second-rate 
statesman.  Doumer  was  far  more  brilliant  and 
vigorous,  but  was  accused  of  self-seeking  and 
was  thought  a  less  safe  person  to  elect.  Unfor- 
tunately, M.  Fallieres,  when  chosen,  had  his 
master,  and  was  largely  under  the  control  of 
Clemenceau. 

Meanwhile  the  almost  unprincipled  vacilla- 
tion of  M.  Rouvier  and  his  spineless  policy 
caused  increased  dissatisfaction  to  the  Cham- 
ber. During  the  discussion  of  a  riotous  episode 
connected  with  the  enforcement  of  the  Separa- 
tion law,  which  had  resulted  in  the  death  of  a 
man,  Rouvier  was  overthrown.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded by  a  colorless  person,  Sarrien,  who  in- 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  FALLIERES    i6i 

eluded  Clemenceau  in  his  Cabinet  as  Minister 
of  the  Interior.  The  latter  gradually  pushed 
his  chief  aside  and  finally  replaced  him  before 
the  end  of  the  year  as  Prime  Minister. 

Clemenceau  showed  himself  during  his 
lengthy  control  of  power  an  astute  politician. 
In  the  public  eye  ever  since  the  days  of  the 
Commune,  he  had  had  success  during  the 
eighties  as  a  destroyer  of  cabinets.  Driven  into 
the  background  by  the  Panama  scandals,  he 
now  came  forward  again  to  try  his  fortune  in 
holding  the  power  from  which  he  had  often 
driven  others.  With  a  Cabinet  thoroughly 
under  his  dictatorial  control,  he  announced  a 
programme  which  was  to  depend  for  success 
on  the  Radicals,  rather  than  on  the  Moderates 
or  the  Socialists.  It  was  a  departure  from  the 
policy  of  the  Bloc,  though  to  conciliate  the  ad- 
vanced parties  he  created  the  new  Ministry  of 
Labor  and  put  M.  Viviani,  a  Socialist,  in  charge 
of  it.  In  practice,  Clemenceau's  policy  was  that 
of  one  determined  to  stay  in  office,  showing 
alternately  conciliation  and  severity,  explain- 
ing his  actions  to  the  Chamber  often  with  a 
flippancy  which  seemed  out  of  place  and  did  not 
help  the  prestige  of  parliamentary  government. 


i62      THE  THIRD, FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

Apart  from  the  diplomatic  tension  with  Ger- 
many, which  was  not  settled  by  the  Act  of 
Algeciras,  the  history  of  the  Fallieres  Adminis- 
tration is  largely  taken  up  with  the  final  dispo- 
sition of  the  religious  controversy  and  with 
labor  questions.  The  constant  advance  toward 
radicalism  and  socialism,  the  lack  of  great 
statesmen  in  Parliament  and  the  presence  of 
professional  politicians,  the  progress  of  anti- 
militarism  and  the  relegation  of  the  question 
of  Alsace-Lorraine  to  the  background,  left  a 
free  field  for  the  growth  of  social  unrest.  The 
tendency  was  encouraged  by  the  elections  for 
the  renewal  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  in 
May,  1906.  To  the  religious  disturbances  and 
the  efforts  of  the  Conservatives  to  prove  them- 
selves persecuted,  the  country  answered  at  the 
polls  by  an  increased  anti-Clerical  majority. 

In  1906  the  Dreyfus  case  was  at  last  settled. 
The  Cour  de  Cassation  finally  annulled  the 
verdict  of  the  Rennes  court-martial.  In  conse- 
quence Dreyfus  was  restored  to  the  army  with 
the  rank  of  Major  which  he  would  normally 
have  reached  had  it  not  been  for  his  great 
ordeal.  Colonel  Picquart,  to  whom  more  than 
to  any  one  he  owed  his  rehabilitation,  who 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  FALLIERES    i63 

had  been  driven  from  the  army  in  1898,  was 
now  made  Brigadier-General.  Promoted  a  few 
weeks  later  to  Major-General,  he  became  Min- 
ister of  War  in  Clemenceau's  Cabinet.  The 
remains  of  Emile  Zola  were  also  transferred  to 
the  Pantheon.  Such  were  the  dramatic  changes 
wrought  in  half  a  dozen  years. 

The  troubles  over  the  application  of  the  law 
for  the  disestablishment  of  the  Church  lasted 
more  than  two  years.  The  Vatican  was  deter- 
mined to  make  itself  a  martyr.  It  would  un- 
doubtedly have  been  glad  to  see  a  forcible 
closing  of  the  churches  in  order  to  cause  a  reac- 
tion in  its  favor.  Moreover,  it  objected  to  the 
diminution  of  priestly  power  and  the  participa- 
tion of  the  laity  as  prescribed  in  the  forma- 
tion of  the  new  associations  cultuelles.  The 
Ministry,  and  particularly  Briand,  were  just 
as  determined  not  to  give  it  an  opportunity  to 
raise  the  cry  of  persecution. 

The  first  opportunity  for  a  conflict  came 
when  the  Government  tried  to  make  inven- 
tories of  religious  property,  including  valua- 
bles. This  measure  was  for  the  protection  of 
the  Church,  but  the  Clericals  chose  to  call  it 
inquisitorial  and  a  first  step  to  confiscation. 


i64      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

In  some  parts  of  France  armed  resistance, 
often  systematically  prepared,  was  made  to 
the  authorities,  army  officers  again  occasion- 
ally refused  to  carry  out  orders,  and  on  March 
6,  at  Boeschepe,  a  man  was  killed.  It  was  this 
incident  which  caused  the  downfall  of  the 
Rouvier  Cabinet. 

It  was  the  policy  of  M.  Briand,  entrusted 
with  the  application  of  the  new  law,  to  employ 
the  most  conciliatory  means  face  to  face  with 
the  Vatican,  determined  to  be  persecuted.  As 
a  matter  of  fact  the  French  bishops,  after  plen- 
ary consultation,  had  decided  by  a  consider- 
able majority,  to  accept  the  law  in  a  good  spirit, 
with  reservations  as  to  its  justice,  and  to  or- 
ganize the  associations  cultuelles.  Suddenly  the 
Pope  intervened  by  an  encyclical  directed 
against  any  such  acceptance,  and  prescribed  a 
continuation  of  the  contest.  These  orders  the 
bishops  felt  constrained  to  obey. 

Therefore,  at  the  advent  of  the  Clemenceau 
Cabinet  in  October,  1906,  M.  Briand  had 
achieved  nothing  but  compulsory  inventories. 
He  got  Parliament  to  allow  the  legality  of  the 
proposed  religious  organizations  under  the 
Associations  Law  of  1901  or  under  the  general 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  FALLIERES    i65 

law  of  1881  on  public  meetings,  as  well  as  under 
the  special  legislation  of  1905.  Again  the  Holy 
See  refused  to  obey,  and  ordered  the  clergy  to 
continue  their  occupancy  of  the  churches,  but 
to  refrain  from  any  legal  declaration  or  regis- 
tration whatsoever.  Then  M.  Briand  did  away 
with  the  declaration.  So  the  contest  went  on 
without  agreement  until  it  finally  lapsed.  The 
clergy  continued  to  occupy  the  churches,  but 
without  legal  claim  to  them,  under  the  law  of 
1881  on  public  meetings,  amended  by  the  law 
of  March  28,  1907,  suppressing  the  formality 
of  a  declaration.  The  Catholic  Church  was 
stripped,  by  its  own  unwillingness  to  help 
organize  holding  bodies,  of  all  its  possessions. 
By  the  good-will  of  the  Government  it  con- 
tinued to  occupy  the  religious  edifices,  but  the 
maintenance  and  repair  of  these  was  depend- 
ent on  the  good-will  of  the  commune  or  admin- 
istrative division  in  which  the  churches  were 
situated.  On  the  other  hand,  nothing  has 
materialized  of  the  prophesied  religious  perse- 
cutions, civil  war,  and  martyrdoms. 

Apart  from  the  annoyances  caused  by  the 
separation  of  Church  and  State,  the  history  of 
the  Clemenceau  Ministry  deals  largely  with 


i66      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

labor  disturbances  and  social  unrest.  This  was 
partly  due  to  parliamentary  demagogy.  A  suc- 
cession of  weak  and  ineffective  ministries  had 
been  followed  by  Clemenceau's  incoherencies 
and  alterations  of  policy,  though  it  remained 
consistently  Radical  and  not  socialistic.  The 
Ministers  were  often  at  loggerheads  (even 
Clemenceau  and  Briand  over  the  Separation 
bill),  and  the  Deputies  were  often  mediocre 
politicians,  quick  to  vote  themselves  an  in- 
crease of  salary,  but  dilatory  in  other  achieve- 
ments. The  growth  of  socialism,  with  its 
theories  of  pacifism  and  international  brother- 
hood, encouraged  the  anti-militarists.  The 
brilliant  leader  Jaures  openly  advocated  the 
abolition  of  the  army  and  the  creation  of  a 
national  militia.  Some  anti-militarists,  like 
Herve,  carried  their  theories  beyond  all  bounds 
and  rhetorically  talked  of  dragging  the  na- 
tional flag  in  the  mire.  Meanwhile  the  pohtical 
methods  in  the  past  of  men  like  Andre  in  the 
War  Department  and  Camille  Pelletan  in  the 
Navy  had  weakened  those  services,  as  Del- 
cass6  had  found  to  his  cost  in  the  controversy 
with  Germany.  The  battleship  Una  blew  up 
in  March,  1907,  there  was  a  suspicious  fire  at 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  FALLlfiRES    167 

the  Toulon  Arsenal,  and  many  other  things 
disquieted  people. 

The  Government  tried  to  cater  to  the  labor 
parties,  brought  forward  plans  for  an  income 
tax  and  for  old-age  pensions,  and  carried 
through  a  law  making  compulsory  one  day  of 
rest  out  of  seven  for  workingmen.  Especially 
active  were  the  efforts  of  the  syndicalists  and 
the  organizers  of  the  anarchistic  Confederation 
generale  du  travail,  or  "C.G.T.,"  to  promote 
every  contest  between  capital  and  labor  and  to 
bring  about,  if  possible,  a  general  strike  of  all 
labor.  There  were  strikes  of  miners,  longshore- 
men, sailors,  electricians  among  others.  Even 
more  alarming  was  the  formation  of  unions, 
afTiliated  with  the  C.G.T.,  among  state  em- 
ployees such  as  school  teachers  and  postmen, 
and  efforts  to  disorganize  the  public  service. 
These  different  movements  Clemenceau  met 
with  his  customary  seesaw  of  friendliness  and 
harshness,  and  the  Government  was  usually 
victorious.  Not  less  troublesome  but  some- 
what more  picturesque  was  the  quasi-revolu- 
tionary movement,  in  1907,  of  the  wine-makers 
of  the  South,  driven  to  desperation  by  over- 
production and  low  prices,  attributed  to  the 


i68      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

competition  of  adulterated  wines.  The  muni- 
cipalities where  these  disturbances  occurred 
were  often  in  sympathy  with  the  creators  of 
disturbance,  not  only  in  small  towns,  but  in 
large  places  like  Beziers,  Perpignan,  Narbonne, 
and  Carcassonne.  Municipal  officials  resigned 
or  refused  to  carry  out  their  duties,  and  some 
regiments,  made  up  of  men  recruited  from 
one  of  the  districts,  mutinied.  The  troubles  at 
last  quieted  down. 

In  the  beginning  of  1909  an  important  agree- 
ment was  signed  with  Germany  which  seemed 
to  promise  an  end  to  the  long  disputes  over 
Morocco.  The  Moroccan  question  had  con- 
tinued to  dominate  French  foreign  policy  even 
after  Algeciras  and  that  conference  had  not 
ended  the  commercial  rivalries  of  the  two 
countries.  In  March,  1907,  a  Frenchman, 
Dr.  Mauchamp,  was  murdered  by  natives  at 
Marrakesh  and  the  French  in  reply  occupied 
Ujda  near  the  Algerian  frontier.  In  July,  after 
the  murder  of  some  European  workmen  at 
Casablanca,  the  French  sent  a  landing  corps. 
In  1908  the  Sultan  Abd-el-Aziz,  a  friend  of  the 
French,  was  overthrown  by  a  rival,  Muley- 
Hafid,  egged  on  by  the  Germans.  These  also 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  FALLIERES    169 

raised  a  dispute  over  some  deserters  from  the 
French  Foreign  Legion  at  Casablanca,  who 
had  taken  refuge  at  the  German  Consulate 
and  whom  the  Germans  claimed  as  their  sub- 
jects. For  a  moment  war  clouds  seemed  to 
appear  on  the  horizon  until  dissipated  by  mu- 
tual expressions  of  regret  and  after  a  refer- 
ence to  the  Hague  Tribunal,  which,  on  the 
whole,  justified  the  French.  It  was,  therefore, 
good  news  for  Europe  to  hear  of  the  agreement 
of  February,  1909,  which  acknowledged  the 
predominance  of  French  political  claims,  and 
tried  to  facilitate  economic  co-operation  in- 
stead of  rivalry  between  France  and  Germany. 
Unfortunately,  this  agreement  was  destined  to 
prove  ineffective. 

The  Clemenceau  Cabinet  lasted  until  July, 
1909.  During  a  discussion  on  the  Navy,  Cle- 
menceau and  Delcasse  had  an  altercation  as  to 
their  relative  responsibilities  for  the  French 
surrender  to  Germany  in  1905  when  Delcasse 
was  driven  from  the  Rouvier  Ministry.  The 
Chamber  sided  with  Delcasse  and  Clemenceau 
discovered  that  his  sarcasm  had  overreached 
itself.  The  new  Premier  was  Briand,  the  So- 
cialist and  former  bugbear  of  the  moneyed 


170      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

classes,  who  had  shown  by  his  management  of 
the  Separation  bill  the  abilities  of  a  true  states- 
man and  who  became  more  and  more  moderate 
in  his  views  under  the  increasing  responsibili- 
ties of  power. 

The  history  of  the  Briand  Ministry  was 
largely  taken  up  by  internal  questions  and  the 
elections  of  May,  1910,  for  the  renewal  of  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies.  To  propitiate  the  elec- 
torate the  expiring  Parliament  passed  a  law 
providing  old-age  pensions  for  workingmen. 
The  elections  left  the  Radicals  and  the  Social- 
istic Radicals  (as  opposed  to  the  Socialists)  on 
the  whole  masters  of  the  situation,  but  the 
general  parliamentary  instability  continued  to 
prevail.  The  country  felt  the  reaction.  In  the 
autumn  of  1910  far-reaching  railway  strikes 
broke  out,  resulting  in  violence  and  injury 
to  railway  property  or  sabotage.  Briand  met 
the  difficulty  energetically  by  mobilizing  the 
employees  still  subject  to  military  duty,  and 
making  them  perform  their  work  under  mili- 
tary orders.  The  act  of  "dictatorship"  was 
approved  by  the  Chamber,  but  Briand  went 
through  the  ceremony  of  resigning  and  ac- 
cepting the  mission  to  form  a  new  Cabinet.  It 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  FALLIERES    171 

proved  not  very  homogeneous  and  withdrew 
in  February,  1911.  The  Monis  Cabinet,  of 
more  advanced  SociaHstic-Radical  principles, 
lasted  only  a  few  months  and  faced  new  dis- 
turbances with  wine-producers.  This  time  the 
trouble  was  in  the  East,  where  many  were 
dissatisfied  with  the  artificial  limitation  of 
districts  entitled  to  produce  wines  labelled 
"champagne."  The  Socialistic-Radical  Min- 
istry of  Joseph  Caillaux  (June,  1911)  en- 
countered a  new  and  dangerous  crisis  in  the 
relations  with  Germany. 

The  mutual  agreement  between  the  two 
countries  for  the  economic  development  of 
Morocco  had,  through  financial  rivalries,  not 
worked  well.  There  was  also  friction  over 
similar  attempts  for  the  development  of  the 
French  Congo.  In  this  state  of  affairs,  the 
French  sent  a  military  expedition  to  Fez  in  the 
early  summer  of  1911  for  the  ostensible  purpose 
of  protecting  the  Sultan  from  attack  by  rebels 
and  of  relieving  the  French  military  mission. 
The  Germans,  backed  up,  indeed,  by  the 
French  anti-militarist  press,  declared  that 
this  was  a  mere  pretext  for  encroachment. 
Spain  also  took  the  opportunity  of  asserting 


172      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

its  rights  to  parts  of  the  North  in  accordance 
with  its  reversionary  claims  by  the  Treaty  of 
1904.  Thereupon  Germany  declared  that  the 
agreements  of  Algeciras  and  of  1909  had 
been  nullified  by  France  and  demanded  com- 
pensations. The  gunboat  Panther  suddenly 
appeared  in  the  port  of  Agadir  (July  1)  and 
the  Germans  began  to  call  for  their  share  in 
the  partition  of  Morocco. 

Difficult  negotiations  were  carried  on  be- 
tween France  and  Germany  through  the  sum- 
mer of  1911,  and  at  moments  the  two  countries 
were  on  the  very  brink  of  war.  The  English 
Government  backed  up  France.  Lloyd  George 
and  Premier  Asquith  made  public  declara- 
tions to  that  effect.  French  capitalists  also 
began  calling  in  their  funds  invested  in  Ger- 
many and  a  financial  crisis  threatened  that 
country. 

Thus  brought  to  terms  the  Germans  be- 
came more  moderate  in  their  demands,  and  it 
was  finally  possible  to  reach  a  compromise, 
unsatisfactory  to  both  parties.  Germany  def- 
initely gave  up  all  political  claim  to  Morocco 
and  acknowledged  France  as  paramount  there. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  territorial  readjustment 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  FALLIERES    178 

was  made  in  the  Congo  by  which  Germany 
added  to  the  Cameroons  about  two  hundred 
and  thirty  thousand  square  kilometres  of  land 
with  a  million  people,  and  the  new  frontiers 
made  annoying  salients  into  the  French  Congo. 
The  treaty  was  signed  in  November,  1911,  but 
the  Pan-Germanists  were  angry  at  any  conces- 
sions to  France,  the  Colonial  Minister  resigned, 
and  the  Emperor,  who  had  thrown  his  influ- 
ence on  the  side  of  peace,  lost  much  prestige 
for  a  while.  On  the  other  hand,  the  French 
were  correspondingly  dissatisfied  at  the  losses 
in  the  Congo.  The  opponents  of  the  Prime 
Minister,  Caillaux,  had  often  taunted  him  with 
too  close  a  relation  between  his  official  acts  and 
his  private  financial  interests.  They  now  ac- 
cused him  of  tricky  concessions  to  Germany  in 
connection  with  the  Congo  adjustments.  M. 
Caillaux  denied  in  the  Chamber  that  he  had 
ever  entered  into  any  private  dealings  apart 
from  the  negotiations  of  the  ministry  of  For- 
eign Affairs.  However,  Clemenceau  asked  the 
Foreign  Minister,  M.  de  Selves,  point-blank 
if  the  French  Ambassador  at  Berlin  had  not 
complained  of  interference  in  the  diplomatic 
negotiations.  M.  de  Selves  refused  to  answer. 


174      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

thus  implicitly  giving  the  lie  to  M.  Caillaux. 
The  consequence  was  a  cabinet  crisis  and  the 
resignation  of  the  Ministry  (January,  1912). 

The  upshot  of  the  Agadir  crisis  was  in- 
creased irritation  between  France  and  Ger- 
many and  the  feeling  in  each  country  that  the 
other  was  seeking  trouble.  The  French  were 
now  convinced  that,  some  day  or  other,  war 
would  inevitably  result  and  the  nation  dropped 
its  strong  pacifist  tendencies  and  rallied  to  the 
army.  The  Germans  were,  above  all,  furious 
against  the  English,  whom  they  considered 
responsible  for  their  humiUation. 

So  far  as  Morocco  was  immediately  con- 
cerned, the  French  took  steps  to  develop  their 
new  privileges.  In  March,  1912,  they  imposed 
a  definite  protectorate  on  the  Sultan  Muley- 
Hafid  and  soon  replaced  him  by  his  brother 
Muley-Yussef.  They  came  to  an  agreement 
with  Spain  as  to  the  latter's  claims  in  the  North 
and  entrusted  to  General  Lyautey  the  ad- 
ministrative and  military  reorganization  of  the 
country.  The  pacification  of  the  hostile  tribes 
was  not  an  easy  task  and  went  on  laboriously 
through  1912  and  1913. 

After  the  downfall  of  M.  Caillaux,  Raymond 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  FALLIERES    175 

Poincare  became  head  of  a  Cabinet  more 
moderate  than  its  predecessor,  the  Socialistic 
Radicals  seeming  somewhat  discredited  in 
public  opinion.  M.  Poincare  was  a  strong 
partisan  of  proportional  representation,  and 
a  measure  for  the  modification  of  the  method  of 
voting  was,  under  his  auspices,  passed  by  the 
Chamber,  though  it  failed  the  following  year 
in  the  Senate. 

In  foreign  affairs,  Morocco  having  dropped 
into  the  background,  the  Eastern  question 
became  acute.  Fear  lest  the  conflict  in  the 
Orient  should  involve  the  rest  of  Europe  led 
France  to  draw  again  closer  to  Russia  and 
England. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  RAYMOND  POINCARE 
February,  19 13 

M.  Fallieres'  term  expired  on  February  18, 
1913.  The  two  leading  candidates  were  Ray- 
mond Poincare,  head  of  the  Ministry,  and 
Jules  Pams,  who  was  supported  by  the  ad- 
vanced Radicals.  M.  Poincare's  election  was 
looked  upon,  because  of  his  personal  vigor,  as 
a  triumph  of  sound  conservative  republican- 
ism, and  it  was  predicted  that  he  would  prove 
a  strong  leader,  able  to  give  prestige  to  the 
Presidency  and  to  bring  order  out  of  chaos. 
The  early  months  of  his  Administration  were 
less  productive  of  results  than  had  been  hoped, 
but  the  European  War  came  too  soon  to  make 
definitive  judgment  safe. 

After  M.  Poincare's  election,  M.  Fallieres 
made  M.  Briand  President  of  the  Council  dur- 
ing the  last  weeks  of  his  term,  and  M.  Poin- 
care kept  the  same  Cabinet.  M.  Briand,  like 
M.  Poincare,  advocated  proportional  repre- 
sentation.  As  the  Chamber  failed  to  take  a 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  POINCARE    177 

vigorous  position  in  support  of  the  measure, 
and  defeated  the  Ministry  on  a  vote  of  con- 
fidence, the  latter  withdrew  (March,  1913). 

Louis  Barthou  next  became  Prime  Minister, 
and  the  important  legislative  measure  of  the 
year  was  the  new  military  law.  The  Germans 
having  largely  increased  their  army,  it  was 
deemed  necessary,  in  spite  of  the  violent  op- 
position of  the  Socialistic  Radicals  and  the 
Socialists  and  the  attempts  of  the  syndicalists 
of  the  Confederation  generate  da  travail  to  work 
up  a  general  strike,  to  abrogate  the  Law  of 
1905  and  to  return  to  three  years  of  military 
service  without  exemption.  M.  Barthou  pushed 
the  three-years  bill  already  supported  by  the 
Briand  Cabinet.  France  took  upon  herself  an 
enormous  financial  burden,  coupled  with  a 
corresponding  loss  of  productive  labor,  yet 
events  soon  proved  the  wisdom  of  the  step. 

The  opposition  to  the  Cabinet  was  virulent. 
There  were  now  two  great  groupings  of  the 
chief   political   parties.^     The  Radicals  and 

*  It  must  be  obvious  to  the  reader,  after  following  all  the 
changes  in  nomenclature  recorded  in  this  volume,  that  in  France 
party-names  give  little  hint  of  party- views:  "  In  French  political 
parlemce  *  Progressivs'  ar  retrograde,  '  Liberals '  ar  conservativ, 
'  Conservativs'  ar  revolutionary  in  aim  and  methods,  '  Radicals ' 
01  trimmers  and  time-servers,  whilst  one  of  the  most  reactionary 


178      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

Socialistic  Radicals,  under  the  name  of  "Uni- 
fied Radicals"  waged  war  against  the  Presi- 
dent and  the  Ministry.  They  were  under  the 
inspiration  of  men  like  Clemenceau  and  the 
active  leadership  of  Joseph  Caillaux  and  tried 
to  revive  the  methods  of  the  old  Bloc  of 
Combes.  They  declared  their  intention  of  re- 
pealing the  three-years  law  and  proclaimed  the 
tenets  of  their  faith  at  the  Congress  of  Pau. 
The  Briand-Barthou-Millerand  group,  sup- 
porters of  Poincare,  soon  formed  a  Moder- 
ate Party  with  a  programme  of  conciliation 
and  reform  known  as  the  "Federation  of  the 
Lefts." 

The  Barthou  Cabinet  had  been  overthrown 
early  in  December,  1913,  after  a  vote  on  a 
government  loan.  President  Poincare  had  to 
call  in  a  Radical  Cabinet  led  by  Gaston  Dou- 
mergue,  the  programme  of  which  Ministry  was, 

administrations  of  recent  years  was  heded  by  three  '  Socialists.*  " 
A.-L.  Gu^rard  in  Pub.  Mod.  Lang.  Assoc,  of  America,  vol.  xxx, 
p.  624.  Compare  also  the  following:  "  Suivant  les  regions  de  la 
France,  c'est-^-dire  selon  la  moyenne  de  I'opinion  locale  et  les 
termes  de  comparaison  ou  les  traditions  propres  h  chaque  prov- 
ince, les  mots  changent  de  signification.  Dans  le  Var  un  radical 
passe  pour  un  moder6,  dans  I'ouest  un  r^publicain  est  consid6r6 
par  certains  comme  un  r^volutionnaire,  aUleurs  les  candidats  qui 
ne  sont  pas  au  moins  radicaux-socialistes  ne  sont  pas  tenus  pour 
de  bons  r^publicains."  L.  Jacques,  Les  partis  poliiiques  sous  la 
troisitme  republique,  p.  429. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  POINCARfi    179 

after  all,  less  "advanced"  than  the  Pau  pro- 
gramme, especially  as  to  the  three-years  bill. 
M.  Caillaux,  the  master-spirit  of  the  Radicals, 
was  the  Minister  of  Finance  and  the  object  of 
the  hostility  of  the  Moderates.  They  claimed 
that  he  used  his  position  to  cause  speculation 
at  the  Stock  Exchange,  and  accused  him  of 
"selling  out"  to  Germany  in  the  settlement 
after  Agadir.  The  Figaro,  edited  by  Gaston 
Calmette,  began  a  violent  campaign.  Among 
the  charges  was  that  during  the  prosecution  in 
1911  of  Rochette,  a  swindling  promoter,  the 
then  Prime  Minister  Monis,  now  Minister  of 
Marine,  had,  at  Caillaux's  instigation,  held  up 
the  prosecution  for  fraud,  during  which  delay 
Rochette  had  been  able  to  put  through  other 
swindles. 

In  the  midst  of  the  public  turmoil  over  these 
charges  Caillaux's  wife  went  to  Calmette's 
editorial  offices  and  killed  him  with  a  revolver. 
Caillaux  resigned  and,  the  Rochette  case  hav- 
ing come  up  for  discussion  in  the  Chamber, 
when  Monis  denied  that  he  had  ever  influ- 
enced the  law,  Barthou  produced  a  most 
damaging  letter.  A  parliamentary  commis- 
sion later  decided  that  the  Monis  Cabinet 


i8o      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

had  interfered  to  save  Rochette  from  prose- 
cution. 

It  was  under  such  circumstances  that  the 
Deputies  separated  for  the  general  elections. 
Three  chief  questions  came  before  the  vot- 
ers, the  three-years  law,  the  income  tax,  and 
proportional  representation.  The  results  of 
the  elections  were  inconclusive  and  the  new 
Chamber  promised  to  be  as  ineffective  as  its 
predecessor.  On  the  second  ballots  the  Social- 
ists made  a  good  many  gains. 

The  Doumergue  Ministry  resigned  soon 
after  the  elections  which  it  had  carried  through. 
President  Poincare  offered  the  leadership  to 
the  veteran  statesman  Ribot,  who  with  the 
co-operation  of  Leon  Bourgeois,  formed  a 
Moderate  Cabinet  with  an  inclination  toward 
the  Left.  This  Ministry  was  above  the  aver- 
age, but  its  leaders  were  insulted  and  brow- 
beaten and  overthrown  on  the  very  first  day 
they  met  the  Chamber  of  Deputies.  So  then 
a  Cabinet  was  formed,  led  by  the  Socialist 
Rene  Viviani,  who  was  willing,  however,  to 
accept  the  three-years  law,  though  he  had 
previously  opposed  it.  But  this  victory  for 
national  defence  was  weakened   by  parlia- 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  POINCARE     i8i 

mentary  revelations  of  military  unprepared- 
ness. 

In  mid-July  President  Poincare  and  M. 
Viviani  left  France  for  a  round  of  state  visits 
to  Russia  and  Scandinavia.  Paris  was  en- 
grossed by  the  sensational  trial  of  Madame 
Caillaux,  which  resulted  in  her  acquittal,  but 
this  excitement  was  suddenly  replaced  by  the 
European  crisis,  and  President  Poincare  cut 
short  his  foreign  trip  and  hastened  home. 
France  loyally  supported  her  ally  Russia,  and, 
on  August  3,  Baron  von  Schoen,  the  German 
Ambassador,  notified  M.  Viviani  of  a  state  of 
war  between  Germany  and  France. 

Indeed,  no  sooner  had  the  Moroccan  ques- 
tion been  settled  than  danger  had  loomed  in 
the  Orient,  in  which  France  was  likely  to  be 
involved  through  her  alliance  with  Russia. 
Moreover,  Germany  had  not  got  over  the 
Agadir  fiasco  and  was  furious  with  England  as 
well  as  France.  Thus  the  European  balance 
of  power  had  long  been  in  danger  through  the 
hostility  of  the  Triple  Alliance  and  the  Triple 
Entente.  It  is  beyond  the  scope  of  the  present 
volume  to  analyze  in  detail  the  Balkan  ques- 
tion. The  role  of  France  was  consistent  in  the 


i82      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

interest  of  peace  by  helping  to  maintain  the 
balance  of  power,  but  obviously  she  was  loyal 
toward  her  partners  of  the  Triple  Entente  and 
acted  in  solidarity  with  them. 

So  far  as  the  outbreak  of  the  war  in  1914  is 
concerned,  France  stands  with  a  clear  con- 
science. She  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  dis- 
putes between  Austria  and  Serbia,  or  between 
Austria,  Germany,  and  Russia.  Once  war 
proved  inevitable  France  faithfully  accepted 
the  responsibilities  of  the  Russian  alliance. 
Against  France,  Germany  was  an  open  ag- 
gressor. Germany's  strategic  plans  for  the 
quick  annihilation  of  France,  before  attacking 
Russia,  are  well  known  to  the  world.  Every- 
body is  aware  how  scrupulously  France 
avoided  every  hostile  measure,  and,  during  the 
critical  days  preceding  the  war,  withdrew  all 
troops  ten  kilometres  from  the  frontier  to  pre- 
vent a  clash.  The  Germans  were  obliged,  in  or- 
der to  justify  their  advance,  to  invent  prepos- 
terous tales  of  bombs  dropped  by  aeroplanes 
near  Nuremberg  or  of  the  violation  of  Belgium 
neutrality  by  French  officers  in  automobiles. 
France  had  no  idea  of  invading  Belgium.  All 
the  French  strategic  plans  aimed  at  the  protec- 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  POINCARfi     i83 

tion  of  the  direct  frontier,  and  they  were  dis- 
located by  the  dishonest  move  of  Germany 
through  Belgium. 

In  1914  France  was  not  even  prepared  for 
war.  The  pacification  of  Morocco  immobi- 
lized thousands  of  her  troops.  Revelations  in 
Parliament  as  late  as  July  13  showed,  as  men- 
tioned above,  great  deficiencies  in  equipment. 
Public  attention  was  taken  up  by  the  Caillaux 
trial  and  by  political  strife  apparently  reaching 
the  proportions  of  national  weakness. 

Since  Agadir  it  is  true  that  France,  con- 
scious of  the  constantly  provocative  attitude 
of  Germany,  had  seen  the  folly  of  plans  for 
disarmament.  Love  for  the  army  had  grown 
again,  through  realization  of  its  necessity. 
But  no  nation  ever  looked  forward  with  more 
horror  and  dread  to  military  conflict  than  the 
French.  They  had  been  the  last  victims  of  a 
great  European  war,  of  which  the  memories 
were  still  alive.  However  much  the  loss  of 
Alsace-Lorraine  rankled  in  their  hearts,  they 
knew  too  well  the  madness  of  war  to  seek  it 
again.  A  new  generation  had  grown  up  rec- 
onciled to  fate  and  willing  to  let  bygones  be 
bygones. 


i84      THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC 

But  Germany  would  not.  The  new  Em- 
pire, a  Bourgeois  gentilhomme  among  nations, 
but  without  even  the  breeding  of  the  parvenu, 
dreamed  of  world-supremacy.  As  the  boor  in 
society  makes  himself  conspicuous,  so  it  was 
one  of  the  tenets  of  Pan-Germanism  to  let  no 
international  agreement  take  place  without 
German  interference. 

Some  people,  reading  the  annals  of  forty- 
four  years  since  the  Franco-Prussian  War, 
have  been  disposed  to  sneer  at  France.  Some 
have  called  the  country  degenerate  because 
of  its  small  birth-rate,  its  fiction  sometimes 
brutal,  sometimes  neurotic,  its  inefTicient 
Parliament,  its  vindictive  political  and  reli- 
gious contests.  Such  critics  should  remember 
that  the  French  Government  is  the  result  of 
tactical  compromise  in  presence  of  the  Mon- 
archical Party.  Nobody  denies  that  it  might 
be  improved.  As  to  religious  persecution, 
Americans  might  remember  their  own  right- 
eous feelings  toward  fellow  citizens  with  "hy- 
phenated" allegiance,  when  they  rebuke  the 
French  for  fighting  vast  organizations  work- 
ing against  their  Government  under  foreign 
orders. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  POINCARE     i85 

In  1914  France,  bearing  on  her  shoulders 
proportionably  the  greatest  burden  of  all  the 
Allies,  presented  to  the  world  a  spirit  of  firm- 
ness, unity,  and  national  resolve  that  won 
the  admiration  of  neutral  nations.  Religious 
persecution  and  clerical  manoeuvre  were  alike 
put  aside.  France  forgot  all  lassitude  and  dis- 
couragement. Atheist,  Protestant,  and  Catho- 
lic felt  a  great  wave  of  spiritual  as  well  as  of 
patriotic  fervor,  and  took  as  symbol  of  love  of 
country  the  heroic  peasant  girl  of  Lorraine, 
Jeanne  d'Arc,  who,  coming  from  the  people 
and  leading  the  nation's  army,  sought  to  drive 
from  the  soil  its  foes  and  invaders. 


THE  END 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX 

PRESIDING  OFFICERS  OF  FRENCH 
CABINETS 

VICE-PRESIDENTS  DU  CONSEIL 

Administration  of  Thiers 
Feb.  19,  1871,  Jules  Dufaure. 
May  18,  1873,  Jules  Dufaure. 

Administration  of  Mac-Mahon 

May  25,  1873,  Due  de  Broglie. 
Nov.  26,  1873,  Due  de  Broglie. 
May  22,  1874,  General  de  Cissey. 

TVT         L   ir^     -lorrc    (LOUlS  Buffet. 

^^^^^l^'l^^^'l  Jules  Dufaure. 

PRESIDENTS  DU  CONSEIL 

Administration  of  Mac-Mahon  (continued) 
March    9,  1876,  Jules  Dufaure. 
Dec.  12,  1876,  Jules  Simon. 
May  17,  1877,  Due  de  Broglie. 
Nov.  23,  1877,  General  de  Rochebouet. 
Dec.  13,  1877,  Jules  Dufaure. 

Administration  of  Jules  Grivy 

Feb.    4,  1879,  William-Henry  Waddington. 
Dec.  28,  1879,  Charles  de  Freycinet. 
Sept.  23,  1880,  Jules  Ferry. 
Nov.  14,  1881,  Leon  Gambetta. 

Jan.  30,  1882,  Charles  de  Freycinet. 


igo  APPENDIX 

Aug.    7,  1882,  Eug&ne  Duclerc. 
Jan.  29,  1883,  Armand  Falli^res. 
Feb.  21,  1883,  Jules  Ferry. 
April    6,  1885,  Henri  Brisson. 
Jan.    7,  1886,  Charles  de  Freycinet. 
Dec.  11,  1886,  Rene  Goblet. 
May  30,  1887.  Maurice  Rouvier. 

Administration  of  Carnot 

Dec.  12,  1887,  Pierre-Emmanuel  Tirard. 
April    3,  1888,  Charles  Floquet. 

Feb.  22,  1889,  Pierre-Emmanuel  Tirard. 
March  17,  1890,  Charles  de  Freycinet. 

Feb.  27,  1892,  Emile  Loubet. 

Dec.    6,  1892,  Alexandre  Ribot. 

Jan.  11,  1893,  Alexandre  Ribot. 
April    4,  1893,  Charles  Dupuy. 

Dec.    3,  1893,  Jean  Casimir-Perier. 

May  30,  1894.  Charles  Dupuy. 

Administration  of  Casimir-Perier 
July    1,  1894,  Charles  Dupuy. 

Administration  of  Felix  Fame 

Jan.  26,  1895,  Alexandre  Ribot. 
Nov.    1,  1895,  Leon  Bourgeois. 
April  29,  1896,  Jules  MeUne. 

June  28,  1898,  Henri  Brisson. 
Nov.    1,  1898,  Charles  Dupuy. 

Administration  of  Emile  Loubet 
Feb.  18,  1899,  Charles  Dupuy. 

June  22,  1899,  Rene  Waldeck-Rousseau.'' 

June    7,  1902,  Emile  Combes. 
Jan.  24,  1905,  Maurice  Rouvier. 


APPENDIX  191 

Administration  of  Armand  Fallihes 

Feb.  18,  1906,  Maurice  Rouvier. 
March  14,  1906,  Ferdinand  Sarrien. 

Oct.  25,  1906,  Georges  Clemenceau. 

July  23,  1909,  Aristide  Briand. 
March    2,  1911,  Ernest  Monis. 
,  July  27,  1911,  Joseph  Caillaux. 

Jan.  13,  1912,  Raymond  Poincare. 

Jan.  21,  1913,  Aristide  Briand. 

Administration  of  Raymond  Poincari 
Feb.  18,  1913,  Aristide  Briand. 
March  21,  1913,  Louis  Barthou. 
Dec.    2,  1913,  Gaston  Doumergue. 
June    9,  1914,  Alexandre  Ribot. 
June  13,  1914,  Ren6  Viviani. 
Aug.  26,  1914,  Ren6  Viviani. 
Oct.  29,  1915,  Aristide  Briand. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Albin,    Pierre.     UAgadir  a    Serajevo    (1911-1914). 

1915. 
Andre,  General  L.   Cinq  ans  de  ministere.   1907. 
Annual  Register.  Yearly  volumes. 
Barclay,  Thomas.   Thirty  Years.  Anglo-French  Remi- 
niscences (1876-1906).   1914. 
Beyens,  Baron.    L'Allemagne  avant  la  guerre.    Les 

causes  et  les  responsabilites.   1915. 
BoDLEY,  J.  E.  C.   The  Church  in  France.   1906. 
BoDLEY,  J.  E.  C.  France.  2  vols.   1898. 
Brisson,  H.  Souvenirs.   1908. 
Cambridge  Modern  History.    (Vol.  xii,  The  Latest  Age. 

1910.) 
Chuquet,  a.   La  Guerre,  1870-1871.  1895. 
Coubertin,  p.  de.      UEvolution    franqaise    sous    la 

iroisieme  republique.   1896. 
Daniel,  Andre  (Andr6  Lebon).    U Annie  politique. 

Yearly  volumes,  1874-1905. 
Daudet,  E.    Souvenirs  de  la  Presidence  du  marechal 

de  Mac-Mahon.   1879. 
Debidour,  a.     UEglise   catholique   et   VEtat   sous   la 

troisieme  Republique.  2  vols.   1909. 
Denis,  Samuel.  Histoire  contemporaine.  4  vols.  1897- 

1903. 
Despagnet,  Frantz.     La   Republique    et    le    Vatican 

(1870-1906).    1906. 
DiMNET,  E.  France  Herself  Again.  1914. 
Dutrait-Crozon,  H.  Precis  de  r Affaire  Dreyfus.  1909. 
FiAux,  Louis.    Histoire  de  la  guerre  civile  de  1871. 

1879. 
George,  W.  L.  France  in  the  Twentieth  Century.   1908. 


iqG  bibliography 

Gu6rard,  A.-L.    French  Civilization  in  the  Nineteenth 

Century.  1914. 
Hanotaux,  G.  Fachoda.  1909. 
Hanotaux,  G.    Histoire  de  la  France  contemporaine. 

4  vols.   1903-1908. 
HippEAU,  E.     Histoire    diplomatique    de    la    troisihme 

republique  (1870-1889).   1889. 
Jacques,  L  eon.    Les  partis  politiques  sous  la  troisieme 

republique.    1912. 
Lavisse  et  Rambaud,  editors.  Histoire  ginerale  du  IV' 

siecle  a  nos  jours.    (Vol.  xii,  Le  Monde  contemporain, 

1870-1900.   1901.) 
Lepelletier,  E.    Histoire  de  la   Commune  de  1871. 

1911. 
LissAGARAY,  P.-O.    Histoive  de  la  Commune  de  1871. 

1896. 
Lowell,  A.  L.   Governments  and  Parties  in  Continental 

Europe.  2  vols.  1897. 
Lucas,  A.    Precis  historique  de  V Affaire  du  Panama. 

1893. 
Marechal,  E.    Histoire  contemporaine  de  1789  a  nos 

jours.  3  vols.  1900. 
Margueritte,  Paul  et  Victor.  Histoire  de  la  guerre 

de  1870-1871.   1903. 
Maurras,    Charles.     Kiel   et    T anger    (1895-1905). 

1913. 
Meaux,  Vicomte  de.  Souvenirs  politiques.   1904. 
Mermeix.   Les  Coulisses  du  Boulangisme.   1890. 
Muel,  Leon.    Histoire  politique  de  la  septihme  legis- 
lature (1898-1902).   1903. 
PiNON,  Rene.    France  et  Allemagne  (1870-1913).  1913. 
Reinach,  Joseph.  Histoire  de  r Affaire  Dreyfus.  7  vols. 

1901-1911. 
Reinach,  Joseph.   Le  Ministhre  Gambetta.   1884. 
R.-L.-M.     Histoire    sommaire    de     VAffaire    Dreyfus. 

1904. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  197 

Rose,  J.  H,   The  Development  of  the  European  Nations, 

1870-1914.   Fifth  edition.    1916. 
RoussET,  L.    Histoire  ginerale   de   la   guerre  franco- 

allemande.  6  vols.  1895. 
SoREL,  Albert.     Histoire   diplomatique   de   la   guerre 

franco-allemande.   1875. 
Tardieu,  Andre.    La  Conference  d'Algisiras.    Third 

Edition.   1909. 
Tardieu,  Andr6.    La  France  et  les  alliances.    Third 

edition.   1909. 
Tardieu,  Andr6.  Le  Mystere  d'Agadir.   1912. 
ViALLATE,  AcHiLLE,  editor.    La  Vie  politique  dans  les 

Deux  Mondes.  Annual  volumes,  1908-1913. 
Wallier,  Rene.     Le   XX*"    siecle   politique.     Annual 

volumes,  1901-1907. 
Welschinger,  H.    La  Guerre  de  1870;  causes  et  re- 

sponsabilites.  1910. 
Zevort,  E.  Histoire  de  la  troisilme  Republique.  4  vols. 

1896-1901. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Abd-el-Aziz,  168. 

Africa,  89,  104,  106,  132. 

Agadir,  172,  174,  179,  181,  183. 

Aix,  104. 

Albert  of  Saxony,  15,  16,  18. 

Alexander  III,  Czar,  105. 

Algeciras,  158,    159,  162,  168, 

172. 
Algeria,  81,  110,  168. 
Algiers,  104. 
Alsace,  11,  13,  34,  35,  43,  157, 

162,  183. 
Amiens,  23. 
Andre,  General,  143,  152,  153, 

154,  157,  166. 
Annam,  89,  90. 
Antony  of  Hohenzollern,  8,  9. 
Arques,  54. 

Arton,  109,  111,  118,  134. 
Artenay,  19,  22. 
Asquith,  172. 
Aurelle  de  Paladines,  General 

d'  22  23  39 
Austria, '3,  4,  52,  89,  155, 182. 
Auteuil,  136. 
Avellan,  Admiral,  106. 

Bac-Le,  90. 

Baihaut,  111. 

Bapaimae,  24. 

Barthou,  Louis,  177,  178,  179. 

Basly,  97. 

Bazaine,  13,  14,  15,  16,  20,  21. 

Beaugency,  23. 

Beaumont,  16. 

Beaune-la-Rolande,  22. 

Belfort,  24,  25,  34. 

Belgium,  4,  16,  182,  183. 

Benedetti,  7,  8,  9,  10. 

Berlin,  11,  51,  73,  81. 

Bert,  Paul,  80. 

Beule,  51. 


Beziers,  168. 
Bienvenu-Martin,  156. 
Billot,  General,  124,  126. 
Bismarck,  1,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  9,  10, 

11,  18,  21,  26,  28,  34,  51,  61, 

73,  81,  93,  157. 
Bitche,  24. 
Blanqui,  38. 
BcEschepe,  164. 

Boisdeffre,  General  de,  106, 125. 
Bordeaux,  22,  31,  35,  36,  40,  43, 

45,  46. 
Borny,  14, 
Boulanger,  General,  93,  94,  98, 

99,  100,  101,  102,  103. 
Bourbaki,  General,  23,  24,  25. 
Bourgeois,  Leon,  121,  122,  180. 
Briand,  Aristide,  151,  153,  156, 

163,  164,  165,  166,  169,  170, 

176,  177,  178. 
BriSrede  I'lsle,  90. 
Brisson,  Henri,  84,  92,  97,  109, 

120,  129,  130,  131,  138. 
Broglie,  due  de,  48,  51,  55,  56, 

57,  67,  69,  71,  72,  83. 
Brussels,  35,  102. 
Buffet,  Andre,  141. 
Buffet,  Louis,  48,  60,  61. 
Buisson,  Ferdinand,  151. 
Burdeau,  116,  120. 
Busch,  Moritz,  11. 
Buzenval,  27. 

Caffarel,  General,  94. 

Cahors,  20. 

CaUlaux,  Joseph,  171,  173,  174, 

178,  179. 
Caillaux,    Madame,    179,    181, 

183. 
Calmette,  Gaston,  179. 
Cameroons,  173. 
Canrobert,  Marshal,  21. 


202 


INDEX 


Carcassonne,  168. 
Carnot,  President,  96-114. 
Casablanca,  168,  169. 
Caserio  Santo,  114. 
Casimir-Perier,  President,  115- 

120. 
Cayaignac,  Godefroy,  129,  130. 
Chalons,  14. 
Chambord,  comte  de,  45,  50,  51, 

52,  53,  55,  56,  88. 
Champigny,  23,  26. 
Chanoine,  General,  130. 
Chanzy,  General,  20,  23,  24. 
Chateaudun,  19. 
Chatillon,  18. 
Chesnelong,  53,  54. 
China,  90,  91,  143. 
Christiani,  Baron  de,  136. 
Cissey,  General  de,  57,  60. 
Clemenceau,    Georges,    78,   83, 

97,   98,   109,   160,  161,   163, 

164,  165,  166,  167,  169,  178. 
Clermont-Ferrand,  94. 
Clinchant,  25. 
Cluseret  40. 
Combes.'  Emile,  145,  146,  147, 

148,  150,  151,  153,  154,  155, 

178. 
Congo,  132,  171,  173. 
Cottu,  Henri,  108,  110,  111. 
Coulmiers,  22. 
Courbet,  Gustave,  42. 
Cremieux,  19. 
Cronstadt,  105,  106. 
Crown   Prince  of  Prussia,  12, 

13,  15,  16,  18. 

Decazes,  due,  56. 
Delahaye,  108. 
Delcasse,  158,  166,  169. 
Delegorgue,  127. 
Delescluze,  Charles,  37. 
Demange,  Maitre,  il9. 
Denfert-Rochereau,  24. 
Deroulede,  Paul,  101,  135,  140, 

141. 
DevU's  Isle,  119. 
Dijon,  151. 
Dillon,  102. 
Dombrowski,  41. 


Dordogne,  99. 

Douay,  Abel,  13. 

Doimier,  Paul,  160.  i 

Doumergue,  Gaston,  178,  180. 

Dreyfus,  Alfred,  105,  116,  117, 
118,  119,  120,  122,  123,  124, 
125,  126,  127,  128,  130,  134, 
135,  137,  138,  139,  140,  142, 
143,  145,  154,  162. 

Dreyfus,  Madame,  131. 

Dreyfus,  Mathieu,  123,  124, 
125,  126. 

Drumont,  Edouard,  118. 

Duclerc,  86. 

Ducrot,  16,  22. 

Dufaure,  Jules,  66,  72. 

Du  Lac,  Pfere,  125. 

Dumas  fils,  Alexandre,  42. 

Dupuy,  Charles,  112,  114,  116, 
120,  131,  135,  136. 

Edward  VII,  154. 

Egypt,  86,  132,  155. 

Eiffel,  G.,  108,  110. 

Ems,  8,  9. 

England,  17,  61,  86,  106,  111, 

128,  132,  133,  154,  155,  157, 

158,  174,  181. 
Ernoul,  49. 
Esterhazy,  117,  123,  124,  126, 

127. 
Eugenie,  Empress,  1,  3,  6,  12, 

15,  17,  20. 
Evans,  Dr.,  17. 

Faidherbe,  General,  23,  24. 
FaCly,  General  de,  16. 
Fallieres,  Armand,  86,  159-175, 

176. 
Fashoda,  132,  133.  155,  157. 
Faure,  Felix,  115-133,  134. 
Favre,  General,  23. 
Favre,  Jules,  17,  18,  25,  27,  28, 

29.^ 
Ferrieres,  18. 
Ferry,  Jules,  77,  78,  79,  80,  81, 

82,  84,  87,  88,  89,  90,  91,  93, 

96. 
Fez,  171. 
Fiaux,  42. 


INDEX 


203 


Floquet,  Charles,  84,  97,  100, 

101,  102,  103,  109. 
Flourens,  Gustave,  37,  40. 
Fontane,  Marius,  108,  110. 
Foo-chow,  90. 
Forbach,  13. 
Formosa,  90. 
Fourichon,  Admiral,  19. 
Francis  I,  45. 
Frankfort,  35,  43. 
Frederick,  Empress,  105. 
Frederick  the  Great,  3. 
Frederick  Charles,  12,  13,  15, 

21. 
Freycinet,  Charles  de,  20,  24, 

30,  77,  79,  85,  86,  93,  109. 
Frohsdorf,  52. 
Froschwiller,  13. 
Frossard,  13. 

Gabes,  82. 

Galliffet,  General  de,  137,  139, 
143. 

Gambetta,  Leon,  17,  19,  20,  22, 
23,  25,  28,  29,  31,  33,  44,  47, 
66,  67,  68,  70,  76,  77,  78,  79, 
82,  83,  84,  85,  86,  87,  91,  92, 
97.  136. 

Garibaldi,  24,  25. 

Geay,  Monseigneur,  151. 

Gerault-Richard,  120. 

Germany,  31,  34,  48,  60,  81,  89, 
94,  119,  128,  132,  154,  155, 
157,  158,  159,  162,  166,  168, 
169,  171,  172,  173,  174,  179, 
182,  183,  184. 

Gervais,  Admiral,  105. 

Glais-Bizoin,  19. 

Goblet,  93. 

Gouthe-Soulard,  104. 

Gramont,  due  de,  6,  7,  9. 

Gravelotte,  15. 

Grevy,  Albert,  110,  111. 

Gr6vy,  Jules,  32,  75-95,  96, 110. 

Grey,  Sir  Edward,  158. 

Guerard,  A.-L.,  178. 

Guerin,  Jules,  140,  141 

Habert,  Marcel,  135,  141. 
Henry  IV,  45. 


Henry,  Colonel,  116,  117,  123, 

124,  126,  130. 
Henry,  Emile,  114. 
Hericourt,  25. 
Herve,  Gustave,  166. 
Herz,  Cornelius,  109,  111,  118. 
Hugues,  Clovis,  97. 

Italy,  81,  89, 106, 107, 150, 154. 
Ivry,  54. 

Jacques,  L.,  178. 
Japan,  158. 
Jaures,  Jean,  166. 
Jeanne  d'Arc,  45,  185. 
Jerome  Napoleon,  86. 
Josnes,  23. 

Kairouan,  82. 
Kiel  Canal,  121. 
Kitchener,  132.     [ 
Koniggratz,  4. 
Kroumirs,  81,  82. 

Labori,  128. 

La  Cecilia,  41. 

La  Motterouge,  19. 

Lang-son,  90. 

Laval,  24,  151. 

Lavigerie,  Cardinal,  104. 

La  Villette,  141. 

Lazare,  Bernard,  124,  125. 

Leblois,  Maitre,  125. 

Le  Boeuf,  Marshal,  12,  21. 

Le  Bourget,  26. 

Lecomte,  General,  39. 

Le  Mans,  24. 

Le  Nordez,  Monseigneur,  151. 

Leo  XIII,  87,   103,   104,   105, 

106,  107,  113,  144,  150. 
Leopold    of    HohenzoUern-Sig- 

maringen,  5,  7,  8,  9. 
Lesseps,  Charles  de,  108,  110. 
Lesseps,  Ferdinand  de,  86,  107, 

108. 
Lille,  70. 
Lisaine,  25. 
Lloyd  George,  172. 
Loigny,  22. 
Loir,  24. 


204 


INDEX 


Loire,  19,  22,  23. 

Loisy,  Abbe,  150. 

London,  26. 

Longchamps,  136. 

Lorraine,  11, 13,  34,  35,  43, 157, 

162,  183,  185. 
Loubet,   Emile,   109,   134-158, 

160. 
Louis  XIV,  26,  36. 
Louis  XVL  45. 
Louis-Philippe,  115. 
Luneville,  13. 

Lur-Saluces,  comte  de,  141. 
Luxembourg,  Duchy  of,  4. 
Lyautey,  General,  174. 
Lyons,  114. 

McKinley,  114. 

Mac-Mahon,  marecheJ  de,  13, 

14,  15,  16,  40,  49,  50-74,  75, 

77. 
Madagascar,  89,  122. 
Madrid,  21. 
Mainz,  13. 

Marchand,  Captain,  132,  133. 
Marne,  22. 
Marrakesh,  168. 
Mars-la-Tour,  14. 
Mauchamp,  Dr.,  168. 
Mayer,  Captain,  118. 
Mediterranean,  81. 
Meline,   Jules,   107,   122,   129, 

134. 
Mercier,  General,  118,  139. 
Merry  del  Val,  Cardinal,  150. 
Metz,  14,  15,  16,  19,  20,  21,  22, 

34. 
Meuse,  16. 

Mexican  expedition,  1. 
Millerand,  Alexandre,  97,  137, 

178. 
Miribel,  General  de,  85. 
Moltke,  18,  26. 
Monis,  Ernest,  171,  179. 
Montbeliard,  25. 
Montmartre,  39,  52. 
Montmedy,  16. 
Montretout,  27. 
Morel,  E.  D.,  158. 
Mores,  marquis  de,  118. 


Morocco,  155,  157,  158,  159, 

168,  171,  172,  174,  181,  183. 
Muley-Hafid,  168,  174. 
Muley-Yussef,  174. 
Mim,  comte  de,  105. 

Nancy,  13. 

Napoleon  I,  1,  87. 

Napoleon  III,  1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  11, 

12,  14,  15,  16,  17,  20,  35. 
Narbonne,  168. 
Negrier,  General  de,  90. 
New  Caledonia,  42. 
Newfoundland,  155. 
Nicholas  II,  Czar,  123,  145. 
NUe,  132. 
Nord,  99. 

North  Germany,  4,  12. 
Nuremberg,  182. 

Offenbach,  3. 
OUivier,  Emile,  6,  8,  9. 
Omdurman,  132. 
Orleans,  19,  22,  26. 
Orleans,  Duke  of,  141. 

Palikao,  comte  de,  14,  15,  17. 

Pams,  Jules,  176. 

Panama,  97,  107,  111,  134,  161. 

Paray-le-Monial,  52. 

Paris,  2,  9, 12, 14, 15, 16. 17, 19, 
21,  22,  24,  25,  26,  27,  28,  32, 
33,  34,  35,  36.  38,  39,  40,  46, 
64,  84,  101,  105,  106,  120, 
128,  134,  140,  154,  181. 

Paris,  comte  de,  44,  52,  53,  55, 
100. 

Patay,  22. 

Pau,  178,  179. 

PeUetan,  Camille,  97,  166. 

Pellieux,  General  de,  135. 

Pere-Lachaise,  41. 

Peronne,  24. 

Perpignan,  168. 

Picquart,  General,  123,  124, 
125,  126,  162,  163. 

Pie,  Monseigneur,  52. 

Piou,  Jacques,  105. 

Pius  IX,  54,  68,  87. 

Pius  X,  150,  164.    , 


INDEX 


205 


Poincare,  Raymond,  175,  176- 

185. 
Poitiers,  52. 
Pont-Noyelles,  24. 
Portsmouth,  105,  106. 
Prince  Imperial,  13,  86. 
Prussia,  3,  4,  5,  7,  10,  11,  12. 

Rampolla,  Cardinal,  150. 

Ravachol,  114. 

Raynal,  85. 

Regnier,  21. 

Reichsoffen,  13. 

Reims,  16. 

Reinach,  Jacques  de,  108,  109, 

110.  Ill,  118,  134. 
Remusat,  Charles  de,  48. 
Rennes,  135,  138,  140, 143, 162. 
Rezonville,  14,  15. 
Rhenish  provinces,  2. 
Rhine,  2,  4. 

Ribot,  TVlexandre,  109, 121, 180. 
Rigault,  Raoul,  37. 
Riviere,  89. 

Rochebouet,  General  de,  71. 
Rochefort,  Henri,  102. 
Rochette,  179,  180. 
Roget,  General,  134,  135,  138. 
Rome,  150. 
Rossel,  40. 
Rouvier,  85,  93,  94,  109,  111, 

155,  158,  160,  164,  169. 
Russia.  61,  105,  121,  123,  145, 

154,  155,  158,  181,  182. 

Saarbriicken,  12,  13. 
Sadowa,  4,  6. 
Saint-Cloud,  2. 
Saint-jVIande,  137. 
Saint-Privat,  15. 
Saint-Quentin,  24,  27. 
St.  Petersburg,  106. 
Salisbury,  Lord,  81,  106. 
Salzburg,  53. 
Sans-Leroy,  110. 
Sarrien,  Ferdinand,  160. 
Say,  Leon,  85. 
Scandinavia,  181. 
Scheurer-Kestner,  125. 
Schnaebele,  94. 


Schoen,  Baron  von,  181. 
Schwartzkoppen,  Colonel,  117, 

128,  130. 
Sedan,  16,  17,  49. 
Selves,  M.  de,  173. 
Serbia,  182. 
Sfax,  82. 
Sicily,  81. 
Simon,  Jules,  28,   67,   68,   69, 

84. 
South  Germany,  4,  7,  12. 
Spain,  5,  8,  155,  158,  159,  171, 

174. 
Spicheren,  13. 
Spuller,  Eugene,  113. 
Steinheil,  Madame,  132. 
Steinmetz,  12,  13,  15. 
Strassburg,  11,  18. 
Sudan,  89. 
Suez,  86,  107,  132. 
Switzerland,  26. 
Syveton,  152. 

Tangier,  158. 

Thiers,  Adolphe,  17,  18,  31-49, 

50,  51,  58,  61,  70,  76,  86. 
Thomas,  General  Clement,  39. 
Tien-tsin,  90. 
Tirard,  102. 
Tonkin,  89,  90,  93. 
Toulon,  106, 167. 
Tours,  19,  22. 
Trochu,  General,  17, 19,  22,  27, 

29,  52. 
Tuileries,  2, 17. 
Tunis,  81,  93. 

Ujda,  168. 

United  States,  62,  159. 

Uzes,  duchesse  d',  100. 

VaiUant,  114. 

Var,  178. 

Vendome,  24. 

Verdun,  14. 

Versailles,  18,  27,  34,  36,  40,  41, 

56,  64,  120,  128,  134. 
Victor-Enunanuel  H,  68,  104. 
Victor-Eknmanuel  III,  150. 
Victoria,  106. 


206 


INDEX 


ViUepion,  22. 

Villers-Bretonneux,  23. 

Villersexel,  25. 

ViUiers,  23. 

Villorceau,  23. 

Vinoy,  General,  27. 

Vionville,  14. 

Viviani,  Rene,  161,  180,  181. 

Von  der  Thann,  22. 

Vosges,  12,  25. 

Waddington,  77,  78,  79,  81. 
Waldeck-Rousseau,  85, 120, 136, 

137,  138,  142,  143,  144,  146, 

146, 148, 153. 


WaUon,  59. 

Weiss,  J.-J.,  85. 

Welschinger,  30. 

WUUam  I,  3,  5,  7,  8,  9,  10,  13, 

18,  26,  35. 
William  II,  157,  158,  173. 
Wilson,  Daniel,  88, 94, 98. 
Wimpffen,  General  de,  16. 
Wissembovu-g,  12,  13. 
Worth,  13. 
Wrobleski,  41. 

Zola,  Emile,  127, 128, 130, 135, 

163. 
Ziirlinden,  General,  130. 


CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U   .   S    .   A 


BOOKS  ON  THE  GREAT  WAR 

Published  by 

Houghton  Mifflin  Company 

THRILLING  stories  of  real  adventure;  graphic 
pictures  of  the  fighting  by  men  who  actually 
fought ;  notable  volumes  dealing  with  the  larger 
aspects  of  the  struggle;  in  short,  books  for  every  taste 
and  on  every  phase  of  the  war  may  be  found  in  these 
pages. 

Personal  Narratives 


With  the 
French 


A  SOLDIER  OF  THE  LEGION 

E.  MORLAE 
An  incomparable  account  of  the  great  offensive  of  September, 
191 5;  graphic,  thrilling,  and  filled  with  the  Foreign  Legion's 
own  dare-devil  spirit.     With  frontispiece.    $1.00  net. 

A  HILLTOP  ON  THE  MARNE 

MILDRED  ALDRICH 
"  Perhaps  the  straightest  and  most  charming  book  written  on 
a  single  aspect  of  the  war." — The  ATew  Hepttblic.  Illustrated. 
$1.25  net. 


With  the 
British 


THE    FIRST 


HUNDRED    THOUSAND 

IAN   HAY 
The  story  of  a  British  volunteer.    Called  the  greatest  book  of 


the  war  by  the  leading  English  papers. 
$1.50  net. 


With  frontispiece. 


KITCHENER'S   MOB 

JAMES   NORMAN  HALL 
The  graphic  and  uncensored  account  of  the  adventures  of 
an  American  volunteer  in  Kitchener's  Army.    Illustrated. 
^1.25  net. 


InBels:ium 


BELGIUM'S  AGONY 

EMILE  VERHAEREN 
The  story  of  what  Belgium  has  endured  and  how  she  has  en- 
dured it,  told  by  her  greatest  poet.    ^1.25  net. 

THE    LOG    OF   A    NON-COMBATANT 

HORACE  GREEN 
"  A  lively,  readable  narrative  of  personal  experiences,  thrill- 
ing, painful,  humorous." — Churchman.  Illustrated.  j5i.25net. 


In  Germany 


TO    RUHLEBEN    AND    BACK 

GEOFFREY  PYKE 
The  story  of  a  young  Englishman's  escape  from  a  detention 
camp  and  flight  across  Germany.  One  of  the  most  picturesque 
and  thrilling  narratives  of  the  war.     Illustrated.     $1.50  net. 


In  Italy 


With  the 
Austrians 


THE  WORLD  DECISION 

ROBERT   HERRICK 
Contains  a  graphic,  first-hand  account  of  Italy's  entrance  into 
the  war,  as  well  as  a  remarkable  analysis  of  the  larger  aspects 
of  the  struggle.    $1.25  net. 

FOUR    WEEKS   IN    THE    TRENCHES 

FRITZ  KREISLER 
"  Filled  with  memorable  scenes  and  striking  descriptions.    It 
will  stand  as  a  picture  of  war." — New  York  Globe.  Illustrated. 
$1.00  net. 


With  the 
Russians 


With  the 
Japanese 


On  the 
Ocean 


DAY   BY  DAY  WITH   THE    RUSSIAN 
ARMY 

BERNARD  PAR^S 
"A  wonderful  narrative.    When  the  history  of  this  great  war 
comes  to  be  written  it  will  be  an  invaluable  document."  — 
London  Morning  Post.     Illustrated.    $2.50  net. 

THE    FALL   OF  TSINGTAU 

JEFFERSON  JONES 
A  remarkable  study  of  war  and  diplomacy  in  the  Orient  that 
"should  be  read  by  every  American  who  is  interested  in  the 
future  of  our  status  in  the  Far  East."  —  New  York  Tribune. 
Illustrated.     ^1.75  net. 

THE    LUSITANIA'S   LAST   VOYAGE 

C.  E.  LAURIAT,  Jr. 
"  Not  only  a  document  of  historic  interest, but  a  thrilling  nar- 
rative of  the  greatest  disaster  of  its  Itind."  —  The  Dial.  Illus- 
trated.   $1.00  net. 


Causes  and  Results  of  the  War 


THE   DIPLOMACY   OF  THE  WAR  OF 
1914  :  The  Beginnings  of  the  War 

ELLERY   C.  STOWELL 
"The  most  complete  statement  that  has  been  given."  —  Lord 
Bryce.    "  The  whole  tangled  web  of  diplomacy  is  made  crys- 
tal clear  in  this  really  statesmanlike  book." — New  York  Times. 
$5.00  net. 


diplomatic 


Financial 


PAN-GERMANISM 

ROLAND  G.  USHER 
The  war  has  borne  out  in  a  remarkable  way  the  accuracy  of 
this  analysis  of  the  game  of  world  politics  that  preceded  the 
resort  to  arms. 

THIRTY  YEARS 

SIR  THOMAS  BARCLAY 
The  story  of  the  forming  of  the  Entente  between  France  and 
England  told  by  the  man  largely  responsible  for  its  existence. 
$3.50  net. 

THE  RULING  CASTE  AND  FRENZIED 
TRADE  IN  GERMANY 

MAURICE  MILLIOUD 
Shows  the  part  played  by  the  over-extension  of  German  trade 
in  bringing  on  the  war.    $1.00  net. 

THE  AUDACIOUS   WAR 

C.  W.  BARRON 
An  analysis  of  the  commercial  and  financial  aspects  of  the 
war  by  one  of  America's  keenest  business  men.     "  Not  only 
of  prime  importance  but  of  breathless  interest."  —  Philadel- 
phia Public  Ledger.    $1.00  net. 


America  and  the  War 


The 

Diplomatic 

Aspects 


The 

MiUtary 
Aspects 


{   THE  CHALLENGE  OF  THE  FUTURE 

ROLAND  G.  USHER 
"  The  most  cogent  analysis  of  national  prospects  and  possibil- 
ities any  student  of  world  politics  has  yet  written."  —  Boston 
Herald.    $1.75  net. 

ARE   WE   READY? 

H.   D.  WHEELER 
A  sane  constructive  study  of  our  unpreparedness  for  war. 
"  You  have  performed  a  real  service  to  the  American  people." 
—  Henry  T.  Stimson,  Former  Secretary  of  War.    $1 .50  net. 


The  Moral 
Aspects 


THE   ROAD   TOWARD   PEACE 

CHARLES  W.  ELIOT 
"Few  writers  have  discussed  the  way  and  means  of  establish- 
ing peace  and  friendly  relations  among  nations  with  more 
sanity  and  far-reaching  estimate  of  values."  —  Detroit  Free 
Press.     ;5i.oo  net. 

GERMANY   VERSUS   CIVILIZATION 

WILLIAM  ROSCOE  THAYER 
A  biting  indictment  of  Prussianism  and  an  analysis  of  the 
meaning  of  the  war  to  America.    $i.oo  net. 

COUNTER-CURRENTS 

AGNES  REPPLIER 
Dealing  mainly  with  issues  arising  from  the  war,  these  essays 
will  take  their  place  among  the  most  brilliant  of  contempo« 
rary  comment.     $1.25  net. 


Miscellaneous 


THE   FIELD  OF   HONOUR 

H.  FIELDING-HALL 
Short  stories  dealing  with  the  spirit  of  England  at  war.  "Ad« 
mirably  written  without  one  superfluous  word  to  mar  the  di- 
rectness of  their  appeal." — New  York  Times.    ^1.50  net. 

A   SONG   OF  THE   GUNS 

GILBERT   FRANKAU 
Vivid,  powerful  verse  written  to  the  roar  of  guns  on  the  west> 
em  front,  by  a  son  of  Frank  Danby,  the  novelist. 

KITCHENER,    ORGANIZER    OF 
VICTORY 

HAROLD  BEGBIE 
The  first  full  and  satisfactory  account  of  the  life  and  deeds  of 
England's  great  War  Minister.  Suppressed  in  England  for  its 
frankness.     Illustrated.     $1.25. 

IS   WAR    DIMINISHING? 

FREDERICK  ADAMS  WOOD,  M.D.,  AND 

ALEXANDER  BALTZLEY 

The  first  complete  and  authoritative  study  of  the  question  of 

whether  warfare  has  increased  or  diminished  in  the  last  five 

centuries.    $1.00  net. 


Fiction 


Poetry 


Biography  ■ 


History 


HOUGHTON 

MIFFUN 
COMPANY 


BOSTON 

AND 

NEW  YORK 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA     001  339  338 


3  1210  00429  4771 


